Chapter 948 - 787: Zhang Xia, Bai Li

The Wokou in Jingjiang County, holding matchlock guns, were in high spirits, their Japanese calls echoing throughout.

The Anti-Japanese Army huddled in the northeast corner of Jingjiang County, along with the locals, keeping silent and not daring to show their faces.

Luckily, a series of barricades temporarily blocked the Wokou’s path, preventing them from advancing rashly, allowing the Anti-Japanese Army and villagers behind the barricades to catch their breath.

The Wokou dispersed, prowling around this corner searching for a breach.

Ten Wokou headed north along Chaoyang Street, suddenly spotting an alley unguarded by the Anti-Japanese Army, and immediately muffled their steps, creeping towards the barricade.

Just as they reached the front of the barricade, Yuan Xi suddenly poked his head out.

The Wokou were about to pull the trigger, but Yuan Xi grasped the barrel of the gun with his left hand, lifting it skyward. With a bang, the lead bullet from the matchlock gun shot into the sky.

With his right hand, Yuan Xi wielded a short knife towards the Wokou’s abdomen, slicing it open with a single stroke, and the Wokou’s intestines immediately spilled out on the ground.

The Wokou’s comrades behind him raised their guns to shoot, but Yuan Xi snatched the matchlock gun and ducked back behind the barricade.

A series of bangs erupted, lead bullets scattering the gravel and bricks flying everywhere from the barricade. Yet Yuan Xi, hiding behind the barricade, unaffected, softly counted: "One, two, three... Nine shots, charge out!"

The few healthy men beside him hesitated, fearing to charge out, but Yuan Xi ignored them, holding a short knife, alone, flipping over the barricade.

Seeing him charging, the Wokou clumsily replaced gunpowder, loaded lead bullets, and stuffed the tinder, in such a hurry that they accidentally dropped the gunpowder on the ground.

Yuan Xi reached them, and the Wokou instinctively lifted the gunstock to block, but Yuan Xi, wary of damaging the gun, deftly maneuvered the short knife, bypassing the gun, piercing the Wokou’s chest.

He pushed the Wokou forward with the knife, as the remaining Wokou clumsily struggled. This battlefield weapon, the firearm, suddenly became a cumbersome hindrance.

After Yuan Xi killed four Wokou, the rest simply dropped the matchlock guns and drew knives to attack Yuan Xi.

The young and strong men of the Anti-Japanese Army behind the barricade, seeing the Wokou weren’t as difficult to kill, also charged out, clashing together in the narrow alley.

A dozen breaths later, the alley fell silent again. Yuan Xi wiped the blood off his face, looked down at the Wokou corpses littering the ground, and instructed the Anti-Japanese Army: "Take all the matchlock guns, flints, tinder, lead bullets, gunpowder—don’t leave any behind, bring them to my adoptive father, don’t use them on your own!"

The Anti-Japanese Army bent over to loot the corpses and then cautiously retreated behind the barricade.

The Wokou circled the northeast corner of Jingjiang County for a long time, thinking they could easily find a breach and kill their way in. Unexpectedly, the fortifications here were complete, blocking every path early on.

After several failed attempts at assault, they lost more than thirty matchlock guns.

At this moment, Chen Ji walked inwards, Jiang Chai approached: "Is the adoptive father alright?"

Chen Ji shook his head: "He’s fine."

Jiang Chai sighed in relief: "Yesterday I led the young men of the city to set up these barricades, one every fifty paces. If the front is overrun, we can retreat; we broke through the walls of the civilians’ houses, allowing us to traverse through them, if the Wokou penetrate deeply, we can circle behind them. Their matchlock guns are unusable here..."

Yuan Xing, casually dusting off his clothes, praised: "It’s thanks to my reminder to set up barricades within the city, or we’d be doomed this time."

Jiang Chai, amused, said: "Alright, alright, you’re impressive."

Yuan Xing boasted: "Of course, that was wisdom gained from the past Great Commander’s unfortunate obsolescence."

Jiang Chai ignored him and turned to Chen Ji: "Yuan Xi took men to intercept the Wokou behind the barricades. We taught them some ways to counter the firearms, not sure if we’ll seize some matchlock guns."

Chen Ji nodded: "I originally worried you wouldn’t know how to deal with firearms, but I overthought it."

Jiang Chai chuckled: "Perhaps the Wokou didn’t expect that our first lesson in the Martial Arts Hall was not about leading troops or mastering martial arts, but about how to counter firearms. How to exploit the gap between shots, fight using cover against firearms, and find opportunities for close combat with the weapons—these need repeated practices... The Ning and Jing Dynasties, the Imperial Three Camps excel in firearms, while we excel in countering them."

Yuan Xing also sighed: "Who would have thought we’d be attacked by firearms during the Jing Dynasty, and even during the Ning Dynasty still face firearms, where’s the fairness in that."

He listened to the Wokou shouting loudly outside the fortifications and impatiently said: "What are they yelling for, as if they’ve won, if it weren’t for the grandson on that treasure ship providing them firearms, they couldn’t attack, they..."

Jiang Chai interrupted Yuan Xing and told Chen Ji: "Adoptive father, there are too many Wokou, I’m afraid these fortifications won’t last long. The first layer might break by noon, although we can retreat further, eventually there’s nowhere left to retreat..."

Chen Ji looked up at the sky, calmly said: "Let’s endure until sunset."

Jiang Chai and Yuan Xing exchanged glances, unsure why Chen Ji said so.

At this time, several Anti-Japanese Army soldiers rushed over holding matchlock guns and threw them on the ground.

Yuan Xing exclaimed: "Gently, these are treasures."

He waved them aside, squatting on the ground to pick up a matchlock gun and examined it: "About the same as those in the Imperial Three Camps, except for the gunpowder cannon; wonder where the Wokou bought them, perhaps the Jing Dynasty could buy some too, then..."

Yuan Xing glanced up at Chen Ji and immediately fell silent.

Chen Ji suddenly asked: "Did the Jing Dynasty really not buy any? The Franks didn’t start developing firearms just yesterday, they don’t distinguish between Ning and Jing Dynasties, as long as they can profit."

Yuan Xing laughed: "Foster father, what do you mean? You have been to Shangjing City, the Left and Right Guards haven’t been equipped with firearms. If the Jing Dynasty had anything good, they would definitely first give it to the Left and Right Guards."

Chen Ji questioned again: "What if someone secretly bought them and didn’t declare it? How could the Jing Dynasty not have bought even one of the hundreds of firearms brought out by the Five-masted Treasure Ship?"

Yuan Xing suddenly widened his eyes: "Wait, foster father, you mean... Lu Jin?"

Jiang Chai interjected urgently: "No wonder Lu Jin has been scheming to seize every port over the years, even stationing the Hu Ben Army nearby... And I heard that he aligned early on with the Chen family and the Xu family, plus there are several fleets wandering at sea."

Yuan Xing angrily shouted: "Traitorous villain!"

Chen Ji stopped speculating about the matter and instructed Jiang Chai: "Select thirty clever soldiers from the Anti-Japanese Army, I will teach them how to use firearms."

Jiang Chai took the order and left.

At that time, outside the fortification of the Anti-Japanese Army, the Great Wokou Leader slowly approached wearing Do-maru Armor.

He silently observed the Anti-Japanese Army resisting with fortifications, darting among civilian houses, giving a sense of being elusive. In the narrow alleys, the numerical advantage of the pirates could never be displayed.

The Great Wokou Leader stood leaning on his sword, watched for a moment, then calmly stated: "Bring those ten gunpowder cannons over, blow open the houses and fortifications. Before sunset, I want to overlook Osaka Castle from atop the Han people’s mountain of corpses."

...

...

In Jinling City, Zhang Xia galloped on horseback.

Zaozao’s iron hooves heavily struck the bluestone road, full of killing intent, startling pedestrians to retreat under the eaves.

She rode all the way to outside the Sanshan Gate, which is the West Water Gate of Jinling City, the largest port in the entire Jinling River Basin where eighty percent of the goods are distributed.

On the river outside the dock, masts stood densely, large and small boats crowded extending several miles, the river wind mixed with the smell of river water, pine wood, preserved goods, and oil smoke.

Thousands of boatmen, bare from the waist up, tied with cloth belts, shouted back and forth on the wet planks, their voices carried far along the river waves.

Zhang Xia sat on horseback and surveyed upwards, searching ship by ship on the dock, until she saw a large ship with eight white lanterns hanging on both sides, then she rode toward the ship.

Before she got close to the big ship, each deck of nearby ships had sailors casting glances, one after another they came to the ship’s side, watching Zhang Xia closely, until people stood densely on either side of the trestle bridge, eyes full of scrutiny.

Zhang Xia held the reins firmly, as if she did not see them, heading straight for the ship with eight white lanterns.

An old boatman gave a look to young boatmen, and immediately several boatmen leaned over the ship railing, teasingly hollering: "Miss, looking for a man..."

Before he finished speaking, Zhang Xia brought her sword fingers together and waved casually, a streak of purple Sword Qi shot forth, piercing a bloody hole into that young boatman’s shoulder.

The young boatman wailed and fell onto the deck.

Hundreds of boatmen exploded in anger, roaring: "Looking for death!"

"Kill this woman, throw her into the river to feed the fish!"

Zhang Xia stood her ground amidst the uproar, Zaozao beneath her snorted heavily through its nostrils, she glanced obliquely up at the old boatman: "Try it."

Amidst the tumult, these three words were incomparably clear.

The old boatman frowned, unable to see through Zhang Xia for a moment.

After pondering a while, he raised his hand and suppressed the shouts, waited until the noise gradually subsided, then lowered his head to Zhang Xia and said: "Miss, you came alone, with overwhelming power and cultivation, you may not get out alive..."

Zhang Xia interrupted: "Tell Princess Bai Li, Zhang Xia from the Imperial Capital, has something to see her."

After saying this, she looked towards the ship with eight white lanterns: "I know, she’s on that ship."

The old boatman’s face changed: "Have you planted a spy in our Cao Guild? Who are you?"

A boatman suddenly remembered Zhang Xia’s name: "Wait, she’s that Yan Zhihu from the Imperial Capital, the Wuxiang Morning News mentioned her days ago, she stormed Jiang Xianzong’s White Tiger Festival Hall for Marquis Wu Xiang."

The boatmen started whispering: "So it’s her!"

"I often heard the story in the teahouse about her breaking into the White Tiger Festival Hall for Marquis Wu Xiang, listened ten times or more."

"No wonder she dared to break through our Cao Guild’s ship formation, anyone who messes with her will meet misfortune..."

"What’s she doing here?"

The old boatman’s face changed with the boatmen’s chatter, he took a deep breath and said: "Second Miss Zhang, I’ve long heard of you, but not just anyone can barge into our Cao Guild..."

However, at this moment, Bai Li’s voice came from the big ship: "Let her aboard."