Wei Caiwei and Lu Ying, along with their companions, searched for reinforcements. Along the way, they encountered scenes of desolation and suffering—nine out of ten houses stood empty, and the common people had fled inland or sought refuge in major cities like Yangzhou and Hangzhou to escape the ravages of war. Only wildflowers bloomed vibrantly amidst the desolation.
Bodies floated everywhere in the Grand Canal and its tributaries, most of them Japanese Pirates, so bloated they were unrecognizable. No one retrieved the corpses, waiting instead for them to drift from the canal into the sea, where they would be cleansed by the ocean.
To avoid disease, Wei Caiwei insisted the group drink only boiled rainwater, mountain spring water, or well water free of impurities, forbidding anyone from touching river water—even for washing their faces.
Lu Ying and the others, accustomed to the bustling prosperity of the capital, were horrified to see the devastation wrought by the Japanese Pirates in Jiangnan. They yearned to join the anti-piracy forces and tear the marauders apart with their bare hands.
In reality, after Hu Zongxian had executed the two major pirates Xu Hai and Wang Zhi, the anti-piracy campaign was nearing its end. Only scattered remnants of the pirates remained, causing chaos wherever they fled. The rising star Qi Jiguang, leading the Qi Family Army, had nearly exterminated the Japanese Pirates in Fujian and Guangdong. The mere mention of the Qi Family Army struck terror into the pirates, driving them to flee to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, where they continued to terrorize the locals. The Qi Family Army pursued them relentlessly, and in just over a month, they had annihilated more than sixty groups of Japanese Pirates.
The Qi Family Army was ferocious—they fought and chased in rapid succession, launching lightning strikes and moving immediately to the next battlefield without pause. As a result, Wei Caiwei and her group struggled to keep up, always arriving too late to find the canals clogged with the corpses of Japanese Pirates.
Even in its final stages, this prolonged war felt arduous and endless, as if the darkest hour before dawn had arrived. At first, the sight of the bloated, pig-like corpses made everyone nauseous, but they soon grew numb, able to steer their small boat with bamboo poles, carving a path through the floating bodies.
Once again, they arrived too late.
However, Wei Caiwei slipped a treated fish swim bladder onto her finger and tested the residual warmth on a corpse. "It's still warm, not completely cold. The Qi Family Army can't be far."
"Look over there!" Lu Ying pointed to a tributary east of the canal, where a stream of bloodied water was flowing.
They turned their boat around and rowed upstream, tracing the source of the blood.
After about two li, they reached the battlefield where the Qi Family Army was engaged with the Japanese Pirates.
The tributary was blocked with bamboo poles, fishing nets, and boats weighted with stones—ready to be scuttled—to prevent the pirates from escaping by water.
On both banks, rapeseed fields stretched out, the plants already bearing slender pods. Hidden among them were Crouching Tiger Cannons, their fire now silent. The river ahead was littered with blown-apart bodies and wreckage.
It was an ambush—the Qi Family Army had waited for the pirates to flee here, blocked the river, and opened fire.
Some pirates had been blown to pieces, their blood dyeing the river red. The survivors swam to the banks, only to be surrounded and slaughtered by the waiting Qi Family Army.
The pirates brandished their swords fiercely, but the Qi Family Army swiftly shifted formation, employing their twelve-person Mandarin Duck Squads to coordinate and eliminate the enemy. The battle raged on.
From their boat, Lu Ying and the others fired their muskets at the pirates onshore, providing support to the Qi Family Army.Wei Caiwei, who had no martial skills, huddled inside the black-canopied boat, listening to the deafening sounds of battle outside.
The Japanese pirates wore no trousers, at most a loincloth. Lu Ying paid no mind, and after exhausting her gunpowder and bullets, she began firing arrows from her bow, rarely missing a shot.
Lu Ying was like an emotionless archery machine, cutting down rows of Japanese pirates one after another.
"Baka!"
"Kill him!"
"Overturn the boat!"
Some pirates leaped into the river, intending to dive and push the boat. Wei Caiwei, armed with a fishing spear, leaned over the gunwale, stabbing frantically at the pirates underwater, who thrashed like large white fish.
In such a brutal war, no one could remain safely on the sidelines.
Just as Wei Caiwei felt her arms giving out, the battle reached its conclusion. The pirates, realizing they were outmatched and had no escape, began surrendering, raising their hands in defeat.
One pirate knelt, weeping and pleading, "Spare this lowly one's life, honored soldiers! I am a man of the Great Ming. My home was plundered by Japanese pirates, my family slaughtered. I had no way to survive and was forced to join them. I know my wrongs now, please—"
Lu Ying released an arrow, ending the pirate's life. She had always abhorred evil, and she coldly stated, "The pirates killed your family, yet instead of joining the army to avenge them, you chose to collude with the enemy. You deserve death."
All the pirates were executed. The signal to withdraw sounded, and the cooks brought barrels of food. The three thousand soldiers of the Qi Family Army ate amidst the piles of corpses, taking a brief rest before moving on to eliminate the next nest of pirates.
They had fought all the way from Fujian and Guangdong to the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region, killing pirates as effortlessly as slaughtering fish. Hu Zongxian was responsible for the large-scale "harvest," while the Qi Family Army ensured "every grain was gathered," clearing out all the stragglers to restore peace to Jiangnan.
Whether they were true foreign pirates or false ones from the Great Ming, only dead pirates were good pirates.
There was no such thing as being forced into it. Once they chose to turn their blades against their own people, even if they had once been victims of violence, if they did not resist that violence but instead robbed and killed those weaker than themselves, they deserved neither sympathy nor forgiveness. They had to pay the price in blood.
Lu Ying and her companions were also allotted a barrel of rice and another of cooked fish.
Thinking about what the live fish might have eaten these past few days, Wei Caiwei declined the fish, accepting only the dry rice and steamed preserved mustard greens. She hastily swallowed a few mouthfuls. Lu Ying then revealed her identity as a member of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and presented the troop transfer order written by Commander Zhu Xixiao, inquiring with the Qi Family Army about the whereabouts of their leader, Qi Jiguang.
Qi Jiguang was munching on his meal while using chopsticks to point at a map, discussing with his subordinates the plan to clear out the next group of pirates.
Lu Ying stated her purpose, and Wei Caiwei relayed the intelligence about Ming Wang's critical illness, requesting the Qi Family Army to recapture Xinghua City.
Qi Jiguang repeatedly verified Lu Ying's talisman and the Embroidered Uniform Guard's request for troop support to aid the White Lotus Sect, half-convinced and half-skeptical—he certainly hadn't forgotten how Xinghua City had fallen: eight Japanese pirates had killed Ming officers, taken their uniforms, and used military orders to trick open the city gates.
Wei Caiwei, worried about Wang Daxia and Ding Wu in the city, urgently added, "We truly are from the Embroidered Uniform Guard. If not, how could we have supported your Qi Family Army so fully on the boat? We used up our last bullets, holding nothing back."Qi Jiguang said, "It's not that I don't trust you, but your story has too many suspicious points. For instance, how could a man disguise himself as a woman and bewilder Ming Wang to such folly without being discovered as male? How could he remain undetected while poisoning someone to the brink of death? If it wasn't poison he administered, it must have been some kind of **potion. Does such an extraordinary man truly exist in this world?"
Wei Caiwei replied, "This matter is absolutely true. When you meet him in person, General Qi, you will understand."
Qi Jiguang remained skeptical.
Lu Ying pointed at herself and asked Qi Jiguang, "Does General Qi think I am a man or a woman?"
Recalling Lu Ying's flawless archery support on the ship and noticing the scar running from her cheekbone to her ear that added to her formidable aura, Qi Jiguang said, "You are undoubtedly a man."
Lu Ying immediately untied the red scarf around her neck, stretched out her arms, and said to Wei Caiwei, "Help me remove my armor."
Wei Caiwei assisted in unfastening the leather armor. Because she had been wearing stiff armor, Lu Ying had not bound her chest. After the intense battle, her inner garments were completely soaked and clung tightly to her body, revealing her feminine form.
Years of martial arts training and chest-binding had caused Lu Ying's breasts to shrink like fried eggs, but a woman's chest is still different from a man's. Combined with her lack of an Adam's apple, her identity as a woman was undeniable.
Lu Ying said to the stunned Qi Jiguang, "Actually, I am a woman. Women can be brave and skilled in battle, and men can certainly be stunningly beautiful enough to topple cities. I shed blood and sweat, while he sacrifices his charm. We are both serving the Great Ming."
Qi Jiguang quickly handed a battle robe to Lu Ying to cover herself, turning away and facing his back to her as he said, "I apologize. Although you aided us in this battle, the attack on Xinghua City is of utmost importance. Ming Wang has over ten thousand Japanese Pirates, while the Qi Family Army only has three thousand. If what you say is true, and Ming Wang also possesses more than five hundred superior firearms stolen from Wang Gong Factory, we cannot afford to act rashly. I need to verify your identities before considering this matter further."
With Qi Jiguang so resolute, the others had no choice but to follow him, assisting in surrounding the Japanese Pirates while continuing their attempts to persuade him.
It wasn't until the next battle, when Lu Ying and the others confronted the Japanese Pirates head-on, wielding their weapons in fierce combat, that Qi Jiguang recognized their fighting techniques as familiar, inherited from the renowned anti-piracy general Yu Dayou. Only then did he begin to trust them, about seventy percent.
With a reverse thrust of her spear, Lu Ying impaled two Japanese Pirates together, nailing them to a tree. Such remarkable bravery and fierceness earned Qi Jiguang's silent admiration—truly surpassing many men. Yet why had he never heard Yu Dayou mention taking on such an exceptional female disciple?
Lu Ying and the others earned Qi Jiguang's respect through their capabilities. Qi Jiguang said, "General Yu is campaigning against the Flying Dragon Kingdom in Guangdong. Provide me with a token or a message, and I will have scouts deliver it to General Yu with urgent dispatches. Only when General Yu confirms your identities can I trust you fully. I have three thousand soldiers under my command, and I must be responsible for them."
Lu Ying paused and said, "Write in the letter, General: A girl named Sakura asks when he plans to repay the debt—her father bribed Yan Shifan with a thousand taels of gold to save his life."
Qi Jiguang wrote the letter and sent it urgently to Guangdong.In Guangdong, Yu Dayou had just quelled the rebellion of the Flying Dragon Kingdom. The kingdom's ruler, Zhang Lian, was forced to lead his troops across the seas, eventually occupying the island of Sanfoqi (present-day Sumatra), where he reestablished the Flying Dragon Kingdom and proclaimed himself emperor.
No sooner had Yu Dayou achieved this new merit and caught his breath than he received a letter from Qi Jiguang. The letter inquired whether he had taken on an exceptionally skilled female disciple, who also asked when he would repay the one thousand taels of gold owed for saving his life.
Yu Dayou immediately knew it was Lu Ying! From the letter, it seemed she was injured. He quickly mustered his troops and set off overnight toward Xinghua City to assist the daughter of his benefactor, joining forces with the Qi Family Army to attack the city.
Author's Note: The "Four Death-Dealers" teaming up with the two anti-piracy generals known as "Yu the Dragon and Qi the Tiger"—this is an unbeatable combination!
OpenNovel