Chapter 678: Armies at the Gates of Edo

Dinner was lavish, and Zhang Yu began to eat.

Song Xiang watched Zhang Yu eat as she spoke: "News just arrived—the king of Joseon has agreed to Kim Jeong-min's request, allowing him to accompany Zheng Xuhong in investigating the case. The two have already left the Joseon royal palace, but they didn't head straight to the Ministry of Punishments. It looks like they intend to start the investigation from the outside."

Zhang Yu set down his chopsticks, thought for a moment, and said: "Then have them release the information—not too much at first, let it trickle out bit by bit."

"I understand." Song Xiang nodded.

After finishing that discussion, neither of them spoke again.

After dinner, the two went to rest.

The Land of Wa—the Ming army's main camp.

Throughout the camp stood enormous braziers, crackling as they burned through the night, illuminating the entire military encampment.

Soldiers moved back and forth everywhere within the camp.

In the central command tent at the very heart of the camp, Sun Chuanting was studying a map.

Behind him stood Qi Yuanbi. Compared to Yu Zigao, Qi Yuanbi was far younger, so this time the task of accompanying Sun Chuanting on campaign had been given to him—after all, fighting on land meant long marches that required excellent stamina.

Since the war began half a year ago, operations had progressed smoothly. Thanks to the insiders they had, the advance had been like splitting bamboo all the way through. In six months, Sun Chuanting had fought his way to Edo—the seat of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the residence of the Wa emperor.

This was an extremely prosperous metropolis with a population of one million, and it was heavily garrisoned as well. Since the war began, the Wa army had suffered defeat after defeat, but they had continuously organized resistance forces, and now they had assembled over three hundred thousand troops at Edo.

This was the Wa's final strength. The Tokugawa Shogunate had staked everything on this one battle—if they could win, everything would improve; but if they lost, there would be nothing left at all.

Sun Chuanting was equally cautious. Edo was a great city, and taking it would not be easy. After all, he didn't have that many men under his command. This time, aside from the Imperial Navy, the Ming had sent only thirty thousand Imperial Guard Corps troops. All the Ming forces combined numbered around eighty thousand; those on land were even fewer—only about fifty thousand.

The Joseon army, by contrast, had arrived in very large numbers. After several rounds of reinforcement, their strength had reached one hundred twenty thousand. Since the war began, Joseon had continuously sent more troops, and after half a year of fighting, these forces could be considered veterans.

Of course, they weren't used for storming fortifications—that was for cleaning up the rabble. Their usual duties were collecting corpses, guarding occupied cities, and handling the basic rear-area work. Even so, their losses had been severe.

To be fair, the Tokugawa Shogunate had reacted very quickly. After being stunned in the early phase of the war, they decisively adopted harassing tactics—pulling back on one front while sending men to strike at places not garrisoned by Ming troops, clashing with the Joseon army on many occasions.

In terms of combat effectiveness, the Joseon soldiers were far inferior. Although the Ming had given them plenty of equipment, if the men were useless, no amount of gear would help. The Joseon army's losses had been quite heavy.

As for the Ming side, Sun Chuanting would never give the Wa any openings. The Ming forces stayed concentrated and advanced steadily, encountering essentially no problems.

On logistics and supply, Sun Chuanting had been extremely, extremely farsighted. Besides the supplies shipped up from within Wa territory, the Ming had established many bases along the coast. These bases served not only as operational staging points but also as production units—they directly seized ordinary civilians and forced them to farm the land.

The Ming had traitors in their hands, and they used these Wa traitors to manage the Wa commoners. Though disturbances occasionally broke out, basic production had been stabilized.

Many Joseon soldiers were stationed guarding the bases, which had intensified the fighting between Wa and Joseon troops. One side wanted to uproot these bases, the other wanted to defend them—the resulting battles were utterly desperate. Both sides had developed genuine bloodlust, and the fighting had become a bitter stalemate.

But Sun Chuanting paid no attention to any of that. He drove the Ming army forward in relentless attacks. As long as supplies held out, he kept advancing. His objective was to reach Edo and eliminate this administrative center of the Wa.

Today, Sun Chuanting had finally arrived at Edo!

"This will be a great battle!" Sun Chuanting said, slapping the map.

Qi Yuanbi, standing behind him, wore a grave expression. After a moment's hesitation, he said: "The Marshal need not worry too much. They may have gathered this many men, but our supplies have arrived as well. This time, the cannon, muskets, and rockets are all amply stocked."

"Worrying wouldn't help anyway." Sun Chuanting smiled bitterly and asked: "What's the state of the Joseon forces?"

Although the main striking force this time was still the Imperial Guard Corps, their numbers simply weren't enough, so Sun Chuanting had pulled fifty thousand Joseon troops from the rear, preparing to fight the decisive battle against the Wa at Edo.

"They're in fine shape—all excited, all ready to go in and loot a fortune." Qi Yuanbi said with some helplessness.

The Ming commanders truly despised those Joseon troops now. Though they were allied forces, in their hearts they looked down on these men, still considering them useless.

They really were too useless. If it weren't for the fact that there was genuinely no one else to use this time, they truly wouldn't want to employ the Joseon army at all.

"I know what you're thinking," Sun Chuanting said with a smile. "No need to worry too much about them. Their main function this time is to be sacrificed. They're thinking wishfully about looting—but what is there for them to loot?"

"What does the Marshal intend?" Qi Yuanbi looked at Sun Chuanting with some hesitation.

"This is Edo, after all." Sun Chuanting gave a cold snort. "Since the Wa want a fight to the death with us, this battle must be fought. But siege warfare always carries heavy casualties. We have rockets and cannon, but the losses once we enter the city will be no less severe."

"So this time, I intend to let the Joseon army enter the city first. They want to go looting, don't they? Let them go in and loot—whatever they can grab, they grab."

Qi Yuanbi nodded.

Just as he had expected. Having fought in Wa for over half a year, he had come to understand certain things—the Wa truly had many fearless warriors who, even after the walls were breached, would come howling out from every direction.

If it were a small city, there would be no problem—the Ming army wouldn't care about them at all. They'd just be one bullet apiece.

But this time the Wa had gathered too many men. With the slightest misstep, the Ming army could suffer losses. Ming soldiers were precious—they could not be allowed to die here.

The fact that even Sun Chuanting was this wary showed just how formidable those Wa warriors were.

By comparison, those Joseon troops were complete trash. Since they wanted to go in and loot this time, let them go—it would serve to wear down those Wa warriors as well.

Sun Chuanting had no confidence whatsoever in the Joseon army—they might well suffer enormous losses this time.

After thinking it over, Qi Yuanbi said: "Marshal, but what about the people they've sent over? Are we truly going to ignore them completely?"

"It's nothing but the same old platitudes." Sun Chuanting waved his hand. "They spout useless words. I suspect they're stalling for time. And I think it's better to negotiate after this battle is fought. If we talk now, they still have all these troops—it won't be easy to handle."

"To eliminate their effective strength?" Qi Yuanbi said after a moment's thought.

Sun Chuanting's gaze turned slightly cold as he looked up toward the outside: "It's not only to eliminate their effective strength, but also to deter them. Otherwise, they'll be a problem."

"We must make it clear to them—don't even think about bargaining with the Ming. They're not qualified."

"Yes, Marshal." Qi Yuanbi nodded and said: "Does the Marshal have any other orders?"

"No. Go back and prepare. Tomorrow at dawn, we attack the city."

"Yes, Marshal." Qi Yuanbi acknowledged and turned to walk out.

The next morning, as the sun rose in the east, the previously silent camp came back to life.

Everyone woke up, washed up, did some light training, and then ate breakfast.

The entire camp was stationed not far from Edo, surrounded by ruins and rubble.

This area had originally been Edo's outer city. After so many years of development, Edo had long since gathered over a million people—the city proper could no longer hold them all, so expansion outward had been necessary. The Wa had enjoyed peace for so many years with no wars to fight that there was naturally no real defense here.

But after the war with the Ming began, the Tokugawa Shogunate had hastily started building fortifications—though mainly around the inner city, since the inner city already had walls and was more convenient to defend. The outer city's territory was so vast that it was truly difficult to manage.

Some civilians had already withdrawn into the city, while others had fled north. Some simple defensive works had been built here originally, but they had caused the Ming army no trouble at all—the Ming simply rolled right over them, leaving varying degrees of destruction in their wake.

Stepping out of the command tent, Sun Chuanting stretched his limbs, took the basin of water handed over by his personal guard, washed his face, grabbed a towel to dry off, and tossed the towel back.

Unlike the clean-faced scholar he had once been, Sun Chuanting had now become a complete roughneck of the military. But Sun Chuanting didn't mind—this appearance made it easier for him to deal with the soldiers.

Glancing at Qi Yuanbi as he approached, he noticed the man still carried dew on his person—clearly he had risen earlier than Sun Chuanting himself.

Sun Chuanting asked with a smile, "Out on patrol again?"

"Yes, I hope the Marshal won't laugh at me." Qi Yuanbi nodded and said, "I wanted to take a look after getting up in the morning; otherwise, I wouldn't feel at ease."

Sun Chuanting couldn't help but sigh—Qi Jin had raised three fine sons.

The eldest served as a guard by the Emperor's side and was now already the head of the Imperial Guard. Though he seemed very rigid and old-fashioned, he was extremely disciplined in his work, which was precisely why he had earned the Emperor's deep trust.

The second son was different from the eldest—his use of troops was bold and unconstrained, and on the battlefield he moved like a fish in water.

As for this third son before him, though he was not quite the equal of his two elder brothers, he was exceptionally steady and composed, having carried that quality to its utmost extreme. While he was somewhat lacking in strategy and big-picture vision, he was very steady in his work—no matter what task you gave him, he could complete it to your exact requirements and do it very well. In this regard, the third son was truly someone you could rely on.

After half a year of working together, Sun Chuanting found it very comfortable being with Qi Yuanbi. Not only could he hand off trivial matters to him, but he could also entrust him with major affairs, and he would complete them all excellently.

Most importantly, he never let his mind wander to wild ideas, nor would he add any extraneous nonsense into things. When told to follow orders, he simply followed orders. Such a person was rare.

Perhaps some might think him too rigid and inflexible, unfit for great responsibility. But if placed in the right position, this man was a treasure.

Sun Chuanting truly treasured Qi Yuanbi.

"So?" Sun Chuanting said with a smile. "After your patrol, are you reassured?"

Qi Yuanbi smiled and said, "I can't afford to let my guard down. Though the Japanese have suffered heavy losses at our hands all this time and haven't come to steal our cannons and muskets for a long while, who knows whether they'll take this seriously now? This is the decisive battle—there can't be the slightest mistake."

"The muskets and cannons we use are among the greatest secrets of the Great Ming; we can't let any information leak out. If these things were seized by them, things would get troublesome. So I went to remind them to be careful. After making a full round, I personally arranged another ring of hidden sentries—if anyone tries to sneak in, they'll definitely be detected."

"This is the seventh batch of hidden sentries you've arranged, isn't it?" Sun Chuanting looked at Qi Yuanbi and said with some helplessness, "Going too far is as bad as not going far enough. Being this cautious isn't necessarily a good thing."

A slightly embarrassed look appeared on Qi Yuanbi's face. He raised his head and looked at Sun Chuanting, saying, "Reporting to the Marshal, this isn't the seventh batch—it's the ninth. After I left your quarters last night, I made another patrol round and arranged two more batches."

Sun Chuanting was full of helplessness. Even knowing this, there was no point in saying anything—this was simply Qi Yuanbi's nature.

Since that was the case, let him be. He was already used to it anyway, and being a bit more cautious was fine—at least it wouldn't cause any trouble.

Ever since the war began in Japan, the Japanese had launched repeated attacks.

At the start, Sun Chuanting had suffered some losses.

Only the unit under Qi Yuanbi's command had never suffered such losses—every time the Japanese came for a surprise attack, they were either completely annihilated or beaten back in a miserable retreat.

At first, Sun Chuanting thought Qi Yuanbi possessed some special talent and had specifically gone to ask him about it. Only later did he learn that his special talent was setting up sentries. All kinds of visible posts and hidden posts—he arranged so many of them, layered upon layer, that no one could possibly anticipate them all. His various passwords and security measures were also extremely thorough.

In this regard, Qi Yuanbi was simply top-tier talent.

After learning of this, Sun Chuanting decisively handed over the entire defense arrangements of the Ming army to Qi Yuanbi.

Qi Yuanbi also fulfilled his duties with utmost dedication.

Ever since Qi Yuanbi took up the post, Japanese surprise attacks had never succeeded. Instead, they had lost a great number of men, and now they simply didn't come at all.