The Prosperous Era of Longwan

After facing each other, the soldiers from the rear army's Qianhu Station quickly climbed onto the carriage. With their feet strong, they naturally changed from yesterday's rear team to the front team, walking at the front of the team.

After Wu Zhankui said goodbye to the magistrate of Liyang County, he waved his hand and the army started to move out from the east gate of Liyang County.

Before leaving, Wu Zhankui asked for a guide from the Liyang County Magistrate who was familiar with the surrounding roads. He just led the way to Yixing and then returned. If he moved quickly, it would only take two days.

After leaving the city, Wu Zhankui rode to the front team and spoke to the guide for a few words. After that, the Jiujiang Wei army turned around halfway to Yixing and drove directly to Zhongxi Town in Wujin County to the north.

Wei Guangde saw the changes in the marching route and knew in his heart that his uncle had listened to his opinions yesterday.

The Japanese pirates' escape to the south seems to be a short journey, but in fact the risk is greater. Only the north escape has the possibility of survival. Even at this time, the officers and soldiers may have assembled in Changxing County, Huzhou Prefecture, preparing to wipe out this group of Japanese pirates.

Wei Guangde thought so. In fact, Wu Zhankui and Wei Meng discussed the direction for a long time last night, and finally chose to be on the safe side and go north to block the Japanese pirates' northward escape route.

The reason why it is said that the north is more secure is naturally because it is inevitably close to the mountains. Not far from Yixing, you will enter the mountains. If you are slow to catch up and let the Japanese pirates enter the mountains, will you pursue them or not?

The few hundred people under their command seemed to be ten times the number of Japanese pirates, but there were only more than 300 experienced veterans, mainly those who returned from Zhejiang the year before last.

The right army only added less than a hundred men, because some of them were taken to Jiujiang by Wei Meng to serve as the general banner of Zhenfu. They also selected more than ten people to serve as personal guards for Wu Dong and Wei Wencai.

The Hou army suffered heavy losses in Dinghai, with more than a hundred casualties.

Adding up the two sides, there are about 300 people with combat experience.

But once you go into the mountains to pursue, you have to be prepared for an ambush by Japanese pirates.

The Japanese pirates traveled all the way, but they were very cunning. They dared to challenge the Ming army head-on, but they were also able to hide and escape, and there were even precedents of ambush halfway.

Wu Zhankui and Wei Meng were unwilling to take their children into danger. Naturally, it was necessary to be safe and secure when setting up defenses in the north. At least there they would not be afraid of being ambushed and would not need to climb mountains and ridges.

And just as they were heading towards Wujin County, under Yixing County, the Japanese pirates began to retreat quickly after launching a round of raids and failing to enter the county.

After two days of traveling in hiding, after arriving at the foot of Yixing City today, they suddenly launched a raid on the city gate, hoping to rush into the city to rob, eat something and continue running.

However, just like the other side of Liyang, the county city gate was heavily guarded. After they appeared, they were discovered by the officers and soldiers at the city head. They immediately dispersed the crowd at the city gate and quickly closed the city gate.

Once the city gate was closed, there was nothing that could be done to this group of Japanese pirates who did not carry siege equipment.

Several Japanese pirate leaders got together, and after a chattering conversation, the Japanese pirates quickly withdrew and headed south.

On Yixing City, the officers and soldiers watched the Japanese pirates leave, and many people collapsed behind the city wall, their faces already pale.

The number of Japanese pirates is really small, only a few dozen, but not only are they tough, but they are also covered in blood. It takes a lot of killing to do this.

In fact, the clothes on these Japanese pirates were already clean. They were snatched from them and put on constantly. The earliest clothes were lost hundreds of miles away.

In recent days, the surrounding villagers knew the news in advance and hid, leaving this group of Japanese pirates without a source of food and clothing, so they had no choice but to flee in embarrassment.

When the Jiujiang Wei army entered Zhongxi Town, the Liyang guide immediately said goodbye and left. They were out of bounds and had to rush back to recover. The most important thing was the thought of war and chaos. Personally, I still feel that home is more important. Safety.

Contacted Li Zheng and Commander Jia of Zhongxi Town and asked them to prepare meals for the army. At the same time, they also sent out their own soldiers to scout this area to the direction of Yixing to prevent Japanese pirates from really rushing out from this direction.

At this time, the policy implemented by the Ming Dynasty and the mobilization of the guards' troops was to eat all the way. Wherever they went, the soldiers' rations had to be prepared locally instead of transported all the way.

So Wu Zhankui and the others didn't bring much food with them on this trip.

The carriage was also brought back by the guide from the county government. When the carriage drivers found out, they left the soldiers behind in panic and ran back, fearing that they would be called back again if they ran late.

All this is in Wei Guangde's eyes. He is very clear about the plan of his uncle and his father. He is probably waiting here. When the siege is over, either the Japanese pirates will escape from the south, or they will hit them directly and let them Jiujiang Wei Take the credit for picking this up.

Before that, the army must have been lying down.

It was night, on the shore of Taihu Lake not far east of Yixing County, a group of people were moving rapidly from south to north.

This was the group of Japanese pirates who had failed to raid Yixing County before. They chose to go south. This was just a trick to attract the captured officers and soldiers to go south to Changxing County.

In the past two days, they did not encounter any officers and soldiers chasing them, but they knew very well that after their troubles, the Ming army must hate their group and must get rid of them quickly, so they were careful every step they took, for fear of being attacked. Caught.

When the sky was getting slightly brighter, several more war horses rushed out from Zhongxi Town, each with a knight on board.

Soon, the cavalry was divided into several small teams, with two riders in each team spreading out to explore the surrounding area.

The knights were all fully clothed and riding on horses. The speed was not fast. The knights looked around with their eyes, observing the footprints left in the distance and on the ground.

Not long after, one of the cavalry groups was moving forward slowly. Suddenly one of them pulled the reins of the horse and stared at a small forest not far ahead.

The woods are not big, but they are very quiet.

"What's wrong?"

Another knight had already taken a few steps forward on his horse. When he noticed that his companion had not followed, he also pulled the reins of his horse and turned around to ask.

"Why are there no birds in this forest?"

The knight couldn't focus on the small forest and made no next move.

"Sleep in."

The man in front of him replied jokingly.

"Don't go near the woods over there yet."

The knight behind said, "Let's go around first and see what's going on behind the woods."

"OK."

They were all riding horses, going around the woods, but it was just a waste of horsepower, so it didn't matter much.

"Be cautious."

Later, the knight still warned, and while he was speaking, he had already taken off a small buckler from his horse and held it in his hand.

Not long after, the two of them had already detoured to one side of the woods. The woods were still quiet and no birds were seen.

Perhaps infected by the atmosphere, the knight who had been indifferent before now also picked up the small buckler and drove his horse away from the woods and the surrounding lush vegetation.

"There are footprints on the ground."

Not long after, the knight's inaudible voice reached the ears of the knight behind. The two pretended not to be pretentious and continued to move forward. After walking a distance away from the woods, they looked at the messy footprints on the ground. They looked at each other, then quickened their horses and trotted to one side.

When Wei Guangde had just gotten up and washed up, he heard rushing footsteps outside, and a soldier quickly ran towards Wu Zhankui's bedroom.

He didn't know what happened, and Wei Guangde didn't pay attention. He was still thinking about what to have for breakfast today. After all, he was not at home now, and the town was not that big, so he didn't know what he could get.

But then, Wei Guangde heard Wu Zhankui going out and ordered: "Inform everyone to gather at the dam in front of the town."

Wei Guangde finally realized something. Is it possible that the Japanese pirates were near here?

Half an hour ago.

In front of a small forest about ten miles away from here, ten knights were divided into two teams, one with six people in each team, gathered together, very close to each other.

The other team of four people were widely dispersed, but they were standing at a distance, and they were constantly observing their surroundings. They had already picked up blunderbuss in their hands.

"Is it just this forest?"

A guard captain from the front team asked.

"So far, no birds have appeared in the forest. It's very strange."

"Yeah, I didn't see it either."

The captain was hesitant. If he were to send someone into the forest to investigate, who would he send?

"Go around the forest, prepare the bow and blunderbuss in your hand, listen to my orders, and then shoot in."

The captain thought about it and said.

When the bird cannon is fired, you will know whether the forest is safe or not by seeing if any birds come out.

When they rode quickly around the woods, the people in the woods who had been observing the movement outside had also discovered this group of cavalry.

It can only be said that the two people pretended to be very similar before, hiding it from Anshao's eyes.

This may be the difference between those who have been on the battlefield and those who have not been on the battlefield. Those who have been on the battlefield will be extremely careful in their actions and actions.

In fact, if this group of cavalry had arrived a little later, maybe there would be no one in the woods.

At this moment, suddenly several gunshots were heard from the cavalry, and then two arrows shot into the woods and hit the tree stumps.

In an instant, the Japanese pirates, thinking that their target was exposed, quickly rushed out of the woods and rushed towards the group of cavalry.

"withdraw."

When the captain of the soldiers saw the Japanese pirates rushing out in a swarm, they had no intention of fighting. The Japanese pirates were very powerful individually. This was something they discovered when they were in Zhejiang. Most of the guys rushing out of the woods were short in stature. , you can tell it’s really Japanese at first glance.

The horse speed of several cavalrymen did not slow down at this moment. After hearing the captain's order, they immediately turned their horses' heads away from the group of Japanese pirates.

When the captain was retreating on horseback, he did not forget to raise his hand to make a gesture. A rider who had been observing from a distance saw the gesture, reined in his horse and ran back.

"Hang them and see where they go."

After running away, the captain of the soldiers reined in his horse and gave instructions.

Seeing that they could not catch up with the cavalry, the Japanese pirates immediately stopped and began to retreat.

They knew that this group of cavalry were scouts. With them coming and going, they naturally knew that there were Ming troops around. If they didn't leave now, they would wait.

But this small group of cavalry stuck around them like marshmallows, following them from a distance.

In Zhongxi Town, the war drums sounded, and the soldiers of Jiujiang Guard ran out of the vacated houses in the town and quickly lined up according to the team flag.

The sudden sound of drums also woke up the residents of the town.

At this time, word had spread in the town that Japanese pirates had arrived nearby.

Those who had the means had already run into the county to escape, while the rest had nowhere to go and could only stay in fear.

This sudden drum sound frightened them half to death.

Those who were more daring could quietly climb up the wall or open a small half door and look outside. The soldiers over there had already formed a team and were waiting for orders.

"Zheng Qianhu, you lead the front team. Don't be reluctant to fight. You just need to find them and set up a formation."

Wu Zhankui gave orders to Zheng Yixiang expressionlessly.

Zheng Yixiang opened his mouth to say something, but in the end he remained silent and followed the order with his fists clasped.

"Wu Dong, form your team, keep up with the rear troops, and be careful to break up the formation at any time."

Wu Zhankui ordered his son Wu Dong.

Wu Dong didn't say anything, but still followed the military regulations and accepted the order with his fists clasped.

Soon, the two groups of soldiers marched out of Zhongxi Town one after another. Naturally, the last ones in the queue were Wu Zhankui, the commander of the guards, Fu Weimeng of the guards, and General Banner of Zhenfu.

Hundreds of infantry advancing forward would naturally not have as much impact as the galloping cavalry.

When the soldiers from Qianhu Station of the rear army caught up with the soldiers observing in front, they also saw the Japanese pirates not far ahead.

There were indeed only about fifty people, not too many.

Zheng Yixiang rode on his horse and immediately ordered the troops to disperse and start forming formations.

Wu Zhankui did not issue an order to fight. Although he wanted to rush forward and chop off the heads of these Japanese pirates, he had also been to Zhejiang and naturally saw that these Japanese pirates were not easy to deal with.

Different from the Japanese pirates we encountered before, the vast majority of the real Japanese were in this group, while the fake ones were very few. Perhaps they had been beheaded by the Ming army in the previous battles.

The Ming army behind them caught up. Naturally, the approach of the rear army was also discovered by the fleeing Japanese pirates.

There don't seem to be many people on the other side, but there must be a steady stream of officers and soldiers coming from behind.

Seeing more than 200 Ming troops coming up behind them, several leaders of the Japanese pirates immediately got together to discuss.

"Go back and kill this group of officers and soldiers. Those behind them will not dare to pursue them."

"Second the suggestion, if we kill the front team, we will be afraid of those behind us."

"kill"

(simultaneous translation)

There was no heated debate. The leaders decided on a strategy in a few words. They turned around and charged for a while to defeat this group of officers and soldiers.

Seeing the Japanese pirates fleeing in front suddenly stop, Zheng Yixiang knew something was wrong. He looked behind him and saw that the right army's team had not come up yet.

In order to prevent being ambushed, Wu Zhankui kept the distance between the teams relatively long, so that even if the Japanese pirates ambush, they could only kill one team.

This departure was not supposed to be like this, but no one mentioned it, so we still moved forward in the same queue as before.

"Set up the formation."

Zheng Yixiang did not dare to retreat at this moment and hurriedly issued orders.

The two hundred-household teams of the Houjun Qianhu Station soon began to move horizontally, preparing to deal with the next attack by the Japanese pirates.

Sure enough, in the next moment, dozens of Japanese pirates took advantage of the Ming army's formation, howling words they didn't understand, and rushed over like crazy.

At the same time, more than ten arrows flew out from the Japanese pirate team and shot straight at Zheng Yixiang on the horse.

Capture the thief first and capture the king first. The Japanese pirates seemed to be very familiar with the tactics of the Central Plains and directly attacked the leader of this group of officers and soldiers.

The sudden change frightened Zheng Yixiang to death. He didn't dare to stop, so he turned over and dismounted and hid behind the horse.

"Puff. Puff."

Several arrows flew over his head, and two arrows hit his horse and the horse of a soldier. The horse screamed in pain and ran back with its hooves spread wide.

Just as he was about to get on the horse of a soldier next to him, he heard the soldier shouting, "Be careful."

Another arrow flew out from the Japanese pirates, which was intended to kill him, a Ming army official.

Zheng Yixiang had no choice but to run into the queue, yelling and cursing to order the soldiers to form a team.