"Kill them..."
The reinforcements surged onto the shore like ravenous wolves and tigers, relentlessly, pushing the already faltering morale of the Wokou to rock bottom. Large numbers of the Wokou began to abandon their attempt to land, turning back toward the sea.
But the ships moored at the coast had already been stranded by the crossfire of the cannons, and although a few could still barely move, with Wang Zeng’s Five Peaks Fleet lurking on the sea, the sea was no escape route either...
Hence, even Zhou Fu gave up on holding the strait’s entrance, pounded the advance drums, and commanded the conscripted soldiers and the Ming Sect members ambushed on both hill slopes to rush into the coast...
Five groups of soldiers, under the leadership of their respective commanders, shuttled back and forth through the crumbling ranks of the Wokou, segmenting them into isolated clusters before surrounding and slaughtering them.
The Wokou roared, howled, and screamed as they fell in swathes.
Whenever a Wokou expert sprang forth trying to carve a bloody path out, they would be met with a number from Wei that would rush down and hack them into several pieces with their chaotic blades...
"My lord, get on the horse!"
One man, a veritable whirlwind of destruction amidst the Wokou with his blade, seemed to enter an uninhabited realm. Yang Ge, hearing the familiar shout, turned his head to see a robust figure clad in a prison ox embroidered garment, galloping on a horse and leading a red steed towards him.
He turned and leaped onto the horse’s back, pulling the reins as the mighty warhorse reared majestically.
In no time, a rousing roar of high spirits erupted behind him: "Kill!"
Yang Ge glanced around, recognizing every face he saw; there must have been at least seven or eight hundred men.
The strong men of the Right Division must have all arrived...
"How did you get here?"
He pulled on the reins of his wildly spirited warhorse and loudly asked Fang Ke, who was by his side.
Fang Ke: "My lord, we were ordered by the Northern Town Prefectural Commissioner to head south to support you... Kill!"
Yang Ge laughed, squeezed his legs against the horse’s flanks, and, brandishing his sword, led the charge: "Kill!"
He charged towards the densest crowd of Wokou, and before he even reached them, he struck, unleashing a ten-meter long blade energy that cut a bloody path. Following this path, he charged in, swinging his blade left and right wildly.
Almost a thousand strong men from the Right Division followed him smoothly into the enemy formation like an arrow, rapidly and effectively dividing and slaughtering them, leaving behind a landscape littered with corpses...
Blood stained the golden yellow coast red.
Bodies of Wokou lay scattered all around.
The groups of Wokou diminished, as numerical superiority didn’t translate into strength and only attracted the powerful assaults of various Wei experts.
What remained were Wokou stragglers, scattered like ants in disarray, trying to break out in all directions within the encirclement of the five Wei forces, desperately looking for a way to survive.
Visit freewebnoveℓ.com for the best novel reading exp𝒆rience.
But where was there a way out?
Many Wokou couldn’t stand such immense pressure; some slit their own throats, others dropped their weapons to kneel and surrender, and still others lay among the piles of dead, attempting to feign death and slip through unnoticed...
The five forces of soldiers crisscrossing along the coast didn’t care whether you were a standing Wokou or a kneeling Wokou, whether you held a weapon or were unarmed; aside from the corpses lying down, every Wokou that was still up was bound to get another slash!
This massacre continued from the late morning until evening.
When the golden-red sunset spread across the sea, the swarming forces on the coast gradually came to a stop at last.
Their eyes, reddened from the killing, looked forward, backward, left and right, but they could no longer find a single Wokou still standing. They could only turn their bewildered gazes toward their comrades-in-arms.
’Where are the Wokou? Where did all those Wokou go?’
’Did you finish them all off? You’re too efficient, aren’t you?’
’Nonsense, are you not efficient? It’s clear that you took more than your share and still have the nerve to accuse others...’
’Nonsense, we arrived later...’
The soldiers from the five forces wandered aimlessly along the coast for a long time, until finally, a voice like one waking from a dream rose among the crowd.
"Did we win?"
"Did we really win?"
"We’ve won!"
"We’ve won!!!"
The voices grew from a whisper to a roar, igniting the entire beach like a wildfire.
At that moment, whether they were court soldiers or rebels from the rivers and lakes, they all raised their blood-drenched weapons high, and with throats hoarse from yelling, they celebrated wildly, congratulating and embracing each other.
In any era, the descendants of Yan and Huang have always been the people most longing for stability, most eager for peace on this planet.
But when it comes to foreign invaders, those bearing arms, wielding weapons, harboring some evil intent and setting foot on the land of China, the homeland passed down through generations, the action of every upright descendant of Yan and Huang has only one response: if they’re found by the fields, they’re to be drowned in those fields; if found by the privy, they’re to be drowned in the privy. If there’s a kitchen knife, use it to chop them; if there’s a dung fork, use it to spear them...
Forgive?
No, forgive them never!
Wang Zeng on the sea trembled as he lowered the long telescope in his hand, cold sweat soaking through three layers of clothing, leaving him feeling as if he wore nothing at all in the howling sea breeze.
Gone?
More than twenty thousand Wokou, just like that, gone?
Even twenty thousand pigs couldn’t all be slaughtered in one afternoon, could they?
An aide, trembling with fear, approached him and stammered, "Boss, do we still, still go ashore?"
Are you sure that if we go ashore now, they won’t mistake us for the Wokou and slaughter us too?
Wang Zeng was silent for a moment, then firmly said, "Go ashore, why not? We are the inside help, the allies!"