Chapter 938 - 780: Incorrect Information

On the tidal flats, the Great Wokou Leader of the Matsubara Clan stood leaning on his sword, silently gazing at the top of the city walls.

In the south of the city, the rangers repeatedly forced the Ning Dynasty citizens forward, but time and again they returned without success.

However, the Great Wokou Leader was not in a hurry. An hour of fierce assault and most of the deaths were merely the impressed laborers; the rangers’ casualties were just about two hundred. Everything was under control.

He stroked the chrysanthemum emblem on his chest and cast his gaze further, waiting to see the flames rise in the north of Jingjiang City. Behind him, dozens of servants also waited silently, waiting for the pirates in the north to conquer the city walls, which would be their cue to launch a full-scale attack on Jingjiang County.

But half a day passed, and the Great Wokou Leader still did not receive any news from the north of the city. No one lit the fire to signal a fierce assault, nor did anyone return to report, silent as if those two hundred pirates there never existed.

The Great Wokou Leader pondered for a moment, waved to the ones behind him, and pointed northward. A servant immediately set out, leading over a hundred pirates to circle around the north of the city and disappeared into the night.

At this moment, beneath the walls in the north, the pirates looked at the young Japanese whose head was smashed into pieces, hesitant for a moment.

They glanced upwards at the city walls, unable to make out Jin Zhu’s face. The fire behind Jin Zhu cast his shadow down the wall, looming over the pirates.

The pirates were about to consider retreating when twelve supervising servants brandishing swords pressed forward.

A servant hacked down a pirate and shouted loudly in Japanese, "If the samurai perish without the city falling, the entire West Sea Land Guard Team will be buried together!"

A servant pointed towards the city walls, "What are you afraid of? We outnumber them by two hundred; even if there are executive officers, we can pile them up and take them down! The east team will contain them here, while the west team climbs from the other side! The first one up shall be rewarded with twenty Han women, twenty Han child slaves, and twenty bolts of silk for slaying a general!"

The Japanese exchanged glances, gritted their teeth, and charged again towards the city walls.

The pirates set up twelve bamboo ladders and rushed towards the top like locusts, only to fall back down one by one.

Yet these relentless pirates managed to keep Jin Zhu and Heavenly Horse contained, unable to rush to other places.

Seeing the east team containing Jin Zhu and Heavenly Horse near the gatehouse, the west team carried the remaining twelve bamboo ladders towards the edge of the city walls, quick to set them up and climb.

With Japanese swords clenched between their teeth, the pirates climbed the ladders, only to see the old, weak, and wounded swinging hoes and pitchforks at them when they reached the top.

A pirate caught the Japanese sword from his mouth with his right hand, excitedly shouting in Japanese, "The Anti-Japanese Army is bluffing, here are just the old and weak, fight through here!"

He deflected a hoe swung towards him with one blow, and with another blow forced back the Anti-Japanese Army at the battlements, clawed his way up the battlements and onto the top of the walls, "First up, the West Sea Land Guard Team, Fujiki!"

The ranger named Fujiki forced the Anti-Japanese Army back on the city walls, and the pirates climbed up one after another through the gap behind him.

Uncle Zheng initially led his people to support this area, seeing the situation, he immediately pulled Zheng Jiye beside him and turned back, "Hurry, if you die here, your mother will curse me for twenty years!"

Zheng Jiye lost a straw sandal, bent down to pick it up, but Uncle Zheng swore and dragged him towards Jin Zhu, "It is not the time to care about your shoes!"

Zheng Jiye said raggedly, "No, we must hold the stone steps, we can’t let the pirates get into the city and open the gates!"

Uncle Zheng cursed angrily, "Do you really think you are a commander?"

Zheng Jiye broke free from his uncle, pulled out the Japanese sword from his waist, "What nonsense are you saying, I am a legitimate commander with a Ministry of War document!"

Uncle Zheng was incensed, "You’ll risk your life for a title, will you?"

In just thirty minutes, dozens of pirates had slaughtered their way onto the city wall pathways, pressing the old, weak, and wounded of the Anti-Japanese Army’s third team into a retreat, barely blocking the stone steps to enter the city.

The pirates, for a moment, did not force their way into the city, first searching for the shadow of the Japanese Chief. After a long time, they found the Japanese Chief lying in a slump at Jin Zhu’s feet.

They surged forward, forcing Jin Zhu back a dozen steps and retrieved the Japanese Chief.

A pirate crouched beside the Japanese Chief, taking off his armor helmet, inspected his neck, and looked up in surprise, "Fan Head Hall is still alive!"

The pirates breathed a sigh of relief; as long as the Japanese Chief was not dead, they would not have to be buried at sea.

They dragged the Japanese Chief into the crowd for protection, while the rest slowly pressed Jin Zhu and Heavenly Horse towards the corner of the city walls.

Jin Zhu, just having fought bare-handed and taken out more than thirty pirates, looked exhausted.

The number of pirates on the city wall pathways increased until over two hundred were all on the walls, and the front line of pirates slashed at Jin Zhu.

In the next moment, his swinging wrist suddenly paused, the sword halted above Jin Zhu’s head, not even touching the bamboo hat.

Jin Zhu’s gaze bypassed his shoulder, looked at the city wall pathway behind him, and saw the dense mass of pirates charging onto the walls, with none left below.

Jin Zhu grinned sinisterly, "Finally all here, I really don’t have time to mess with you, old Chen!"

The pirates suddenly felt something was wrong, and when they looked back, on the other side of the city wall, a middle-aged scholar walked leisurely with his hands in his sleeves, followed by a young man with a relaxed expression.

The middle-aged scholar turned his head and instructed, "Young Master, please step back a few steps."

Chen Yu immediately stepped back, allowing Chen Xu, Jin Zhu, and Heavenly Horse to encircle the over two hundred pirates atop the city walls.

Chen Xu took out a Yellow Paper Talisman from his sleeve, bit his fingertip and wrote a seal character on it, then tossed it into the air.

The triangle-folded Yellow Paper Talisman naturally unfolded in mid-air and ignited without fire.

The Yellow Paper Talisman burned slowly, hanging in the night sky above the city wall like a lantern, its faint glow enveloping the entire walkway along the city wall.

Chen Yu whispered, "Mountain Talisman?"

At the moment the glow enveloped the city head, everyone within the light felt as if a mountain was pressing down on them, instinctively falling to the ground.

Chen Xu walked forward leisurely toward the pirates, his hands returned inside his sleeves.

A servant stood in place, enduring the Mountain Talisman, gripping a sword with both hands, gritting his teeth as he moved step by step toward Chen Xu.

The servant was tense all over, the muscles on his face constantly twitching. After taking two steps, there was a crisp sound from his knee, and he knocked to the ground.

Kneeling on the ground, he tried to lift the sword with effort, but the Japanese sword sank into the ground and he couldn’t lift it at all. Unwillingly, he looked up to see Chen Xu passing by him, giving him only a sidelong glance before continuing onward.

Zheng Jiye shouted from the ground, "What’s going on? Brothers, I’m on your side, let me up."

Jin Zhu ignored him, stepping deep and shallow on the bodies of the pirates across the city wall path.

At that moment, a feather fell on the pirates’ bodies as if a door was pressing down, let alone a person’s weight? With each step Jin Zhu took, his footing exerted a weight like a thousand pounds, crushing the pirates’ bodies, breaking bones and tearing tendons.

He stepped on a pirate’s chest, and it immediately collapsed, with a gush of blood spewing from the pirate’s mouth, dying with eyes wide open.

Jin Zhu raised his head to look at Chen Xu: "Grand Official of the Chen Family, your Mountain Talisman isn’t all that effective, is it? It’s okay to deal with these pirates, and it’s okay to deal with heavy armor cavalry, but to someone like me, a Seeking Dao Realm Official, it’s like scratching an itch, no pressure at all."

Chen Xu wasn’t angered, only replied gently, "You’re right."

As the Mountain Talisman on the city head burned halfway, the three Seeking Dao Realm Officials walked back and forth, killing the pirates like stepping on ants.

The Anti-Japanese Army lay on the ground watching in terror, as Jin Zhu and the others walked out of sight, only the sound of breaking bones continued to rise and fall, the cries of pain unending.

Zheng Jiye said fearfully, "Gentlemen, earlier I didn’t see Taishan clearly, but we are also here to kill pirates and protect the people, with no ill intent!"

Jin Zhu squatted beside him, smiled and said, "Don’t worry, I’m also here to fight the pirates, we’re on the same side. Tell me, what about the godfather you mentioned?"

Zheng Jiye hesitated for a moment, "He’s someone I caught and brought back who was a deserter..."

Jin Zhu laughed in anger at this, no longer concealing his identity: "Kid, you’ve got something in you, if I take you back to the Imperial Capital, there’s no need to bother looking for spies, just take you for a stroll and I’ll catch all of Si Cao, how about making you a Hai Dongqing?"

Zheng Jiye was puzzled, "What is Hai Dongqing?"

Heavenly Horse made a gesture beside him, "Feeling the urge to gamble? You managed to bet right on Chen Ji, time to quit gambling."

Jin Zhu chuckled, "Just joking with him."

Just then, footsteps sounded outside the city again. Jin Zhu looked out to see a hundred pirates sneak over.

He looked up at the nearly burned-out Mountain Talisman and turned his head to Heavenly Horse and said, "Let them ascend the city, kill them quickly."

...

...

Another two hours passed, still no news from the North City.

The Great Wokou Leader squinted slightly, was there a hidden force in the North City wall? Throwing in over three hundred pirates, yet not even a splash was made.

But this Jingjiang County claimed there were over a thousand Anti-Japanese troops, but in reality, only a thousand street hoodlums. Facing the southern army’s pressure, how dare they put elites in the north?

Moreover, that was three hundred Japanese, even if all one thousand Anti-Japanese troops were north, facing a strong attack, there shouldn’t be no sound at all.

The Matsubara Clan had dealings with the Anti-Japanese Army many times, even Innate Officials within the Anti-Japanese Army were as rare as phoenix feathers, Seeking Dao Realm Officials were nonexistent, so what’s happening now?

Watching the official on horseback racing along the city head, tirelessly chopping down the advancing rangers one by one, was clearly a Seeking Dao Realm Official.

This Jingjiang County city before him, over a thousand Anti-Japanese soldiers, one Seeking Dao Realm Official, everything matches the information from Jinling, yet it remains unconquered, where did it go wrong?

At that moment, a servant who had gone to support the North an hour ago rushed back, followed by scattered rangers in disarray.

The servant reached the Great Wokou Leader’s front, falling on the ground, speaking incoherently in Japanese.

The Great Wokou Leader, hearing this, narrowed his eyes: the Anti-Japanese troops in the North unexpectedly killed three hundred West Sea Land Guard Team, leaving only six to escape back? There were several Seeking Dao Realm Officials hidden among the Anti-Japanese troops in the north? The walkway on the city wall was full of rangers’ corpses?

The information was wrong!