“Quick, quick, send men to retake the city gate at once!” Prefect Han cried out the moment he was roughly pinched awake.
“Lord Prefect, it’s too late. That traitor Wei has already opened the gates. General Liu organised several counter-attacks to seize them back, but each time they were blocked by Wei’s rebels. What’s worse, the Japanese pirates have already poured into the city. General Liu and his men are no match for them. By the time I left, General Liu was being pushed back step by step. The gates cannot be held…”
The messenger knelt on the ground, his voice choked with grief.
What?! It’s over. Everything is finished! Upon hearing this disastrous news, Prefect Han’s vision went black, his head lolled to the side, and he fainted again.
“Lord Prefect! Lord Prefect! The Prefect has fainted again…”
“Lord Prefect, wake up, wake up! Someone come quickly, the Prefect has passed out again!”
“Lord Prefect, please wake up! The Japanese pirates have broken in! What should we do? Fight? Hold the line? Or retreat strategically?!”
The prefectural yamen descended once more into utter chaos, everyone rushing about in panic, pinching his philtrum and shouting as though calling back a lost soul.
While the yamen was in complete disarray, Xu Hai, Matsuura Shigenobu, and Ryūzōji Takanobu stood outside the city, watching the endless stream of Japanese pirates flood through the gates. Triumphant smiles spread across their faces. The situation was decided. Songjiang Prefecture City was theirs.
Now it was time to reap the harvest.
The wealth of such an enormous city, a metropolis far richer than Kyoto in Japan, was simply unimaginable. Mountains of gold and silver would not even come close. Matsuura Shigenobu practically drooled at the thought.
“Even if they discovered our plot and prepared defences in advance, so what? They can fortify their walls, but they cannot fortify men’s hearts!”
Xu Hai chuckled lightly, completely at ease.
“Yoshi! Xu-san speaks with great reason. You Ming people have an old saying: calamity arises from within the walls. They are the inner walls, and you, Xu Hai, are the inner wall of the entire Ming!”
Ryūzōji Takanobu nodded repeatedly, full of admiration for Xu Hai’s method of taking the city from within, capturing it virtually without bloodshed. Heh, they were Songjiang’s inner wall, and you, Xu Hai, were the Ming dynasty’s inner wall!
I just love inner walls with no loyalty! The more traitorous inner walls like you, the better!
“Let us enter the city. I can hardly wait to see how much gold, silver, and treasure this great city holds.”
Matsuura Shigenobu rubbed his hands together eagerly.
“Hahaha, the victory is sealed. Since General Matsuura is so impatient, let us enter the city.”
Xu Hai laughed heartily.
The three men, faces glowing with the joy of triumph, waved their hands and ordered their central army forward. They strolled leisurely towards Songjiang’s gates, every bit the posture of conquerors.
Just as they sauntered towards the city, a sudden dense and perfectly regular “bang bang bang” thundered behind them, like rolling thunder.
“Bad!”
The instant he heard that tight, disciplined volley, every hair on Xu Hai’s body stood on end. Instinctively he performed an ungainly donkey roll, throwing himself to the ground and tumbling aside while shouting, “Bad!” The terror instilled by the Zhejiang Army surged through him once more.
As he rolled, Xu Hai twisted his head desperately to look back.
Sure enough, in his field of vision, soldiers of the Zhejiang Army clad in black iron-plated cotton armour appeared like ghosts behind their main force. They levelled their matchlocks in the long, distinctive linear formation unique to the Zhejiang Army, smoke already drifting above the ranks.
The Zhejiang Army advanced straight at the Japanese pirates’ central command, marching with perfectly synchronised steps, their formation never wavering.
They surged towards the command banner like an overwhelming tide.
A swathe of Japanese pirates at the rear of the central army collapsed. Even those wearing iron armour could not stop the musket balls. The balls punched through chests and out backs, screams ringing endlessly.
“Baka! Where did this strange army come from?!” Matsuura Shigenobu whirled around, saw the ghost-like Zhejiang Army, and let out a frantic “Baka!”
“Nani?! What kind of formation is this?! Why is it so bizarre?! They are all equipped with matchlocks?! Every single man is fully armoured from head to toe?!”
Ryūzōji Takanobu turned and stared in shock at the Zhejiang troops, every soldier armoured, every soldier wielding a matchlock.
Is this how matchlocks are supposed to be used?!
“Bad! It’s the Zhejiang Army! Damn that Zhu Ping’an, why is he here again?! He really is a lingering ghost!”
Xu Hai scrambled up from the ground in a sorry state, gnashing his teeth. The sight of the Zhejiang Army wiped the confident smile from his face, replacing it with panic.
He could not help it. Every encounter with the Zhejiang Army had been a nightmare. How could he not panic?
Not only Xu Hai, every Japanese pirate who had previously faced the Zhejiang Army remembered the terror of being dominated by them and shrank back.
Fortunately, most pirates who had met the Zhejiang Army before were already dead. Many in the current ranks had never experienced that fear. Though startled by the sudden attack at first, they quickly recovered and grew furious.
Sneak attack, you little rubbish!
There are not even that many of them, just three thousand at a glance, while we have six thousand!
We just crushed the defenders on the walls!
“Kill!”
“Die, die!”
Without waiting for orders from Xu Hai or the others, the central and rear forces charged the Zhejiang Army of their own accord. These were veteran pirates hardened through countless battles!
“Matchlocks reload slowly! Charge and wipe them out!” Ryūzōji Takanobu, well aware of the matchlock’s weakness, bellowed the command.
“They’ve just fired and cannot reload yet. Charge and tear them apart!” Matsuura Shigenobu roared as well.
Under their orders, the pirates charged even more fiercely.
Bang bang bang.
They were met by another perfectly disciplined, dense volley of matchlock fire.
“Aaah!”
Screams erupted from the rear as another great swathe of pirates fell like harvested wheat.
After firing, the front rank of the Zhejiang Army slowed their pace and opened a gap. The ranks behind smoothly accelerated, overtaking them to become the new front line. The original front rank halted, fired in perfect unison, then slowed again while the next rank surged past.
While the new front rank halted and fired, soldiers in the rear ranks bit open paper cartridges, poured powder into their matchlocks, and reloaded.
By the time the front completed one cycle, the rear had finished loading and accelerated forward.
This seamless rotation, this wave-like advance, the endless, perfectly regular bang bang bang of matchlock fire opened the gates of hell itself, sending wave after wave of Japanese pirates straight into the underworld.
Watching the Zhejiang Army’s wave formation and the ceaseless, disciplined volleys, Xu Hai’s pupils contracted sharply. Damn it, the Zhejiang matchlock formation had evolved again, more mature, more lethal!
“How is this possible? How can this strange army’s matchlocks fire so frequently?! Do they not need to reload?!”
Matsuura Shigenobu’s mouth fell open in disbelief.
“Can matchlocks even be used like this?!” Ryūzōji Takanobu’s mouth gaped even wider, his eyes practically bulging. The scene before him defied description.
After four volleys from the Zhejiang Army, the charging pirates finally came to their senses and halted. Almost none of the front-runners were still standing. They lay screaming on the ground. Even heavily armoured elite pirates were the same. Before musket balls, all men were equal. Armoured or unarmoured, iron, leather, or heavy plate, it made no difference. The balls shattered armour and men alike. Death had cooled their ardour.
