Chapter 1012

The Great Ming army arrived. When the new Dragon-Banner was planted on Odawara Castle and the sky-covering sailing ships appeared in Sagami Bay, the Japanese samurai clearly knew that the Great Ming army had truly come.

Odawara Castle is a mountain castle with only two gates. The first is the Tokiwagi Gate.

This wooden gate is the main gate of the *honmaru*. The *honmaru* keep was built on Mount Hakone. Compared to the *ninomaru* castle, the *honmaru* was a full six *zhang* higher. Moreover, after a hundred years of repairs, it was difficult to climb, and even if one climbed up, one would still face a three-*zhang*-high ring wall.

On the three-*zhang*-high ring wall, which was over six *chi* wide, samurai could run quickly and defend by shuttling between dozens of arrow towers.

Outside the Tokiwagi Gate was the Tokiwagi Bridge. This wooden bridge only allowed six people to walk side by side, and even if one fought across this bridge, one would still face a *wengcheng* (barbican). As long as one walked across the wooden bridge, one would have to face arrows from three sides of the *wengcheng*'s walls.

There was also another Tokiwagi Iron Gate in the *ninomaru* castle.

This iron gate was the only passage in and out of the entire Odawara Castle. Once closed, it was basically impossible to break through from the front. Even if one paid an unknown number of casualties to take this iron gate and enter the mountain castle, one would still face countless mountain paths, arrows, and traps.

In the city, there were twenty-two water wells and granaries that could store five years of grain.

A very standard Japanese mountain castle. Even for the Great Ming, which possessed countless siege cannons, to gnaw on this hard bone, one would need to lead the charge and enter before one could pry open this turtle shell.

The mountain castles built by the Japanese during their short-term invasion of Korea were already very tricky, and this mountain castle, which had been repaired for hundreds of years, truly lived up to its reputation as the "Number One Stronghold Under Heaven."

And the Japanese, lacking sufficient firearms, were completely helpless against this mountain castle. Such a sturdy city could only fall from within.

On the sixth day of the ninth month of the twentieth year of Emperor Wanli, the Tokiwagi Iron Gate, which had been closed for two full years, slowly opened. A donkey cart slowly appeared. There were no weapons on the donkey cart, but a Dragon-Banner and a Seven-Star Banner were hung, moving slowly forward. On the cart was an envoy sent by Hojo Ujimasa.

This is the wisdom of the Hojo clan's survival. Whenever a strong enemy arrived at the city walls, they would close the gates and wait for the enemy to attack for a period of time. Once they discovered it was difficult to attack, and the enemy's charge began to waver, the Hojo clan would open the iron gate, send out an envoy, offer fine wine, delicacies, and wealth, and persuade the other side to retreat.

This is giving each other a way out—one of the survival wisdoms of Japan's Warring States period. There is no need to pay too heavy a price to fight to the death here. Dying too many people here gives others an opportunity.

Paying the lives of tens of thousands of samurai to take this city and suffering heavy casualties would only allow other *daimyo* to smell the blood and kill them.

The Hojo clan's envoy was only one person. He was very short, about less than five *chi*, dressed extremely magnificently, wearing a *tare-ei* cap, wearing ear ornaments on both sides of his cheeks, and wearing a *hyo*-colored robe. Unlike the Great Ming Confucian robe, the Japanese robe was fixed at the collar with a "dan," and under the robe were *shitsuki*—trousers with legs like lanterns. He wore a pair of white socks and no shoes, nor wooden clogs.

The rule that "envoys are not killed in war between two countries" also applies to Japan. This envoy's donkey cart would go all the way to meet the enemy commander before he was allowed to get off. Not wearing shoes represented his determination not to run away or look back.

This attire actually looks a bit like the scholar-officials of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms and the Tang Dynasty, but it is not particularly similar. Just as Wan Wan Shihe said, "They haven't learned three parts of human appearance, but seven parts of beastly nature are deeply rooted." They learned it, but not completely, and they didn't learn it well.

The envoy walked to the enemy camp and met the commander of this enemy army, Sakai Tadatsugu.

Sakai Tadatsugu was one of the Four Heavenly Kings under Tokugawa Ieyasu and Tokugawa Ieyasu's first senior retainer. He was sixty-six years old this year. Because he suffered from an eye disease, his vision began to decline, not yet to the point of blindness, but he could no longer lead troops in battle.

After the envoy offered the fine wine, delicacies, and wealth, he stated Hojo Ujimasa's request for the troops to retreat.

"This attack has been going on for two years. Since the lord retreated, only thirty thousand people were left to continue the attempt. These thirty thousand people are unable to take Odawara Castle no matter what. Odawara Castle has raised the Great Ming Dragon-Banner, and the Great Ming army has arrived in Sagami Bay. If the general insists on continuing the attack, I fear there will be heavy casualties. I ask the general to be cautious and leave this place." The envoy's attitude was extremely respectful.

Sakai Tadatsugu was truly capable of fighting. If he could just stop the troops and make peace, it would be a good thing for both sides.

Hojo Ujimasa sent the envoy, and Xiong Xiong Tingbi was aware of it and permitted it.

The Hojo clan also had their own calculations. Ujimasa and Ujinao both didn't want to really fight, because Toyotomi Hideyoshi might use this as a reason to launch a larger-scale invasion, causing the Kanto Plain to fall into endless war.

Xiong Xiong Tingbi was willing to let the Hojo clan try because Xiong Xiong Tingbi was very sure that the other side would not retreat so easily. If they could retreat, they would have retreated long ago.

"I cannot make such a decision." After a long, long silence, Sakai Tadatsugu sighed with emotion: "Since Oda Nobunaga, the Hojo clan has always been a rebellious subject. They did not submit to Oda Nobunaga, nor did they submit to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and even less did they submit to the lord."

"Now that they have chosen to submit to the Great Ming, they should not act like fickle villains. Disloyal subjects are ultimately thieves, and no place can tolerate them."

The samurai of the Tokugawa family all addressed Tokugawa Ieyasu as "Lord" or "Your Highness." Sakai Tadatsugu did not respect Toyotomi Hideyoshi because he was Tokugawa Ieyasu's retainer, not Toyotomi Hideyoshi's.

Out of respect, the Hojo clan's envoy also addressed Tokugawa Ieyasu as "Lord," meaning the head of the family.

"Thank you for your instruction, General. However, General, is there really no room for maneuver?" The envoy didn't expect there to be no conditions at all, only a refusal.

Previously, the Hojo clan expected Sakai Tadatsugu to open his mouth like a lion and demand a large amount of wealth before retreating. Then they would haggle a little bit, find a condition that both sides could accept, give some wealth, and let the enemy withdraw.

Not even talking about conditions—how can this business be discussed?

"I cannot retreat." Sakai Tadatsugu sighed again and said in a low voice: "Envoy, please return."

Sakai Tadatsugu's attitude made the envoy unable to understand. Clearly, Sakai Tadatsugu knew he couldn't fight and had the intention to retreat, so why did he say he couldn't retreat? The envoy wanted to talk more, but was sent away by Sakai Tadatsugu.

Sakai Tadatsugu could not retreat because he had a disloyal situation in his past choices, which led to him never gaining Tokugawa Ieyasu's complete trust, even though he was one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Tokugawa family.

When Oda Nobunaga, the Great Demon King, was conquering the world, he once betrothed his second daughter, Tokuhime, to Tokugawa Ieyasu's eldest son, Matsudaira Nobuyasu. The marriage between the two families made their cooperation even closer.

When Tokuhime, Oda Nobunaga's second daughter, visited her family, she accused her husband, Matsudaira Nobuyasu, and her mother-in-law, Lady Tsukiyama, of secretly colluding with the Takeda clan to rebel in front of Oda Nobunaga!

Oda Nobunaga was furious. After investigation, he discovered that Tokugawa Ieyasu's legal wife, Lady Tsukiyama, was indeed colluding with the Takeda clan. Oda Nobunaga ordered the death of Lady Tsukiyama and his son-in-law, Matsudaira Nobuyasu.

Tokugawa Ieyasu could not bear Oda Nobunaga's humiliation and once tried to resist, contacting the Imagawa and Takeda clans, planning to resist Oda Nobunaga. At this critical moment, internal divisions also arose within the Tokugawa family: one faction advocated resistance, and one faction advocated compromise with Oda Nobunaga.

And among the faction advocating compromise was Sakai Tadatsugu.

The Shogun wanted to kill the head of the family's legal wife and eldest son. As a retainer, Sakai Tadatsugu actually thought they should compromise to avoid conflict, which laid the foundation for later distrust.

Sakai Tadatsugu had unspeakable suffering.

His compromise stance at the time came entirely from Tokugawa Ieyasu's own authorization, not his own will.

It was Tokugawa Ieyasu, the head of the family himself, who let Sakai Tadatsugu express this stance in order to keep the alliance with Oda Nobunaga and maintain the family's peace.

But now, Oda Nobunaga is dead, and Tokugawa Ieyasu has become the head of the Five Elders, with a lofty status. No matter what, there cannot be such a stain.

This blame can only be borne by Sakai Tadatsugu.

That is why he was sent here to execute this chicken-rib task. The Great Ming needs to kill some people to establish its prestige, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu need some samurai to die to prove that they had tried, but just didn't succeed.

An abandoned pawn, and an abandoned pawn that must die.

"At the request of Yuan Zheng and Yuan Zhi, I permitted you to send an envoy. Clearly, all you had to do was retreat, so why insist on coming here to die?" Xiong Xiong Tingbi felt very, very serious discomfort.

Japan's feudalism and the Great Ming's feudalism seem completely different.

In the eyes of Yuan Zheng, Yuan Zhi, Sakai Tadatsugu, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and others, they don't care about the lives of those thirty thousand samurai at all.

The power of the Great Ming's firearms had already been fully demonstrated in the burning of Kyoto.

Even from the most utilitarian perspective, the decision Sakai Tadatsugu should have made was to retreat and preserve his strength, rather than die.

But such a bizarre thing happened, and Sakai Tadatsugu wouldn't even talk.

After thinking carefully for a long, long time, Xiong Xiong Tingbi understood the fundamental source of his discomfort: the Japanese poor, the commoners, and even the samurai were completely numb. They had no individual will or self-will.

The will of these Japanese nobles, *daimyo*, and court officials was their will.

The Great Ming is not like this. The tenant farmers of the Nanjing Zhenwu Camp, Hangzhou Luomu Camp, and the three counties of Ninghua, Ruijin, and Ningdu gathered in the city to force the county officials to stamp the equal-field documents, reduce rents, and so on—every single event proved that even the Great Ming's tenant farmers were not so numb.

Whether it is the Great Ming Emperor or the ministers, at least they all keep "the people are the foundation of the state, and the foundation is solid, the state is peaceful" on their lips. No matter what they think or do in their hearts, at least they say so.

But from Xiong Xiong Tingbi's contact, Japan is not like this. The Japanese seem unable to express their dissatisfaction.

Those peasant uprisings are more like a performance. Gathering tens of thousands of commoners, they can only petition these masters, and then the leaders organize themselves and commit suicide to apologize.

This is not rebellion at all; this is a performance.

"Since you refuse to leave, then die here." Xiong Xiong Tingbi said no more and began to prepare for battle.

The war began again. The Great Ming navy swept the formation, and the three thousand elite troops of the Great Ming Capital Garrison quickly deployed at Odawara Castle.

Soon, on the ninth day of the ninth month, the drums shook the sky, and Sakai Tadatsugu ordered the samurai to launch another charge toward the open Tokiwagi Gate of Odawara Castle.

The Great Ming troops filed out, and soon eighteen hundred men were lined up—three rows of six hundred men each, a three-stage firing line formation, completed in just half a quarter of an hour.

The drums shook the sky, the sound of horns swept across the entire battlefield, and countless seabirds on the seashore flapped their wings and flew toward the horizon.

The Dragon-Banner and Xiong Xiong Tingbi's tooth-flag danced constantly on the city walls. Orders were issued rapidly, and the precise killing machine began to operate.

The first thing that resounded across the battlefield was the nine-jin cannons. A total of forty-seven nine-jin cannons began to roar. Explosive shells were pushed out of the barrels by the gunpowder explosion, drawing beautiful arcs in the air and exploding loudly above the Japanese samurai.

The iron caltrops in the explosive shells were scattered toward the Japanese samurai under the thrust of the gunpowder, blooming into enchanting flowers of blood.

Flowers of blood bloomed on the battlefield and then disappeared into the charging torrent. After several rounds of bombardment, the roar of the cannons stopped. Only the thunderous shouts continued on the battlefield, and the sound of killing filled everyone's ears.

Under Odawara Castle, rows of crossbow carts were pushed out. The crossbow strings were gradually tightened under the rotation of the mechanisms, and a total of 120 crossbow carts were ready to go. Divine Fire Flying Crows were placed in the position of the crossbow strings.

"Level the crossbow formation." Xiong Xiong Tingbi put down his telescope; the enemy had entered the range of the Divine Fire Flying Crows.

"Fire." Xiong Xiong Tingbi estimated the distance again and ordered the leveled Divine Fire Flying Crows to be fired.

The tooth-flag turned constantly, and the sound of the war drums became urgent again. Several messengers stood by the war drums, constantly waving the colored flags in their hands, and orders were transmitted to the battle formation.

The leveled crossbow formation aimed at the charging Japanese. The triggers were pulled, and the flint in the abdomen of the Divine Fire Flying Crow rubbed fiercely against the fire-steel on the crossbow cart, igniting the fuse. Streams of fire flew out from the crossbow carts, flying toward the distant Japanese.

The Academy of Things had a failed exploration: Zhu Zhu Zaiyu once tried to put an iron horse on a glider to provide power and asked His Majesty the Emperor for one million silver to build a wind tunnel specifically for improving gliders.

This project failed because Zhu Zhu Zaiyu had already determined that the calorific value of coal and the thermal efficiency of the iron horse could not meet the conditions for flight.

But this project was not a complete failure; at least the Great Ming gained a lot of empirical formulas, improved the shape of the Divine Fire Flying Crow, allowed it to fly farther, and made it more stable.

The arm-length Divine Fire Flying Crow became rounder and more slender. Two diagonal wings provided balance while also providing a certain amount of lift, and the triangular tail rudder prevented the Divine Fire Flying Crow from being affected by the wind.

The previous Divine Fire Flying Crows had no way to maintain flight stability. After being released, they mostly went with the wind and moved with the wind, making them more suitable for setting fires, such as the burning of Kyoto. But their instability made them less suitable for use as battlefield weapons. Now this shortcoming has been compensated for by the doctors of the Academy of Things.

They traded range for stability and a larger amount of gunpowder, increasing lethality.

120 Divine Fire Flying Crows soared into the sky with sharp whistling sounds. The whistling sounds were sometimes high-pitched and sometimes low. Two minutes later, the second wave of 120 flying crows took off. The whistling sounds echoed constantly in the air, and wave after wave of flying crows were released.

The first Divine Fire Flying Crows released finally flew over the charging Japanese. The Japanese looked up in horror. The whistling sound attracted everyone's attention. The fuses of the flying crows had burned out, and the flames had burned into their abdomens. Explosions followed one after another, and fire oil and white phosphorus, carried by the divine fire, were sprinkled toward the Japanese charging formation like spilled ink.

When the fire oil and white phosphorus fell on the Japanese, they ignited violently, completely disrupting the Japanese's charging pace. Screams rose one after another. The Japanese rolled on the ground, but it was to no avail. The reason the Divine Fire Flying Crow carried the words "Divine Fire" was because this kind of fire was difficult to extinguish once it stuck.

A nauseating smell of roasted meat wafted across the battlefield. The ignited Japanese rushed toward the seaside, but fell to the ground on the way and made no more sound. The flames still burned quietly.

This was not the end, but the beginning. The second wave, the third wave, countless waves of flying crows arrived one after another.

The Japanese rushed toward the Great Ming army formation through the flames. Finally, they reached a distance of 150 paces and entered the range of the Tiger-Crouching Cannons. When the Tiger-Crouching Cannons began to roar, the Great Ming soldiers began to load ammunition, preparing to meet the Japanese's progressive charge.

At 120 paces, the Pingyi muskets began to ring out frequently.

At 80 paces, the first row of musketeers pulled the triggers. The hammers with flint struck toward the flash pans, rubbed against the fire-steels, and ignited the priming powder in the flash pans. The priming powder burned into the barrels, ignited the propellant, and the lead bullets were shot out under the thrust of the gunpowder.

By the time the third row of musketeers pulled the triggers, the first row of musketeers had already completed loading. Gunsmoke constantly filled the battlefield. Every round of gunfire caused nearly a hundred Japanese pirates to fall in response. Flowers of blood constantly bloomed on foreheads, shoulders, chests, abdomens, and limbs.

Every whistling sound of lead bullets tearing through the air ruthlessly harvested the lives of the Japanese pirates.

The Japanese pirates fell like stubble, wave after wave, on the road of their charge.

The Japanese finally failed to break through the Great Ming army's musket formation. At a distance of nearly 60 paces, they could no longer move forward. The Japanese finally stopped charging and began to collapse.

"Change formation. Cavalry battalion, move out." Xiong Xiong Tingbi continued to issue orders.

The three-row line formation began to quickly change into a marching column. In the gaps of the column, cavalrymen appeared. A total of eight hundred cavalrymen reined in their horses. The murderous atmosphere on the battlefield did not cause the warhorses to be uneasy; instead, it made the warhorses quite excited.

The drums became dense again. The cavalry began to walk, trot, and then began to charge. The sound of hooves was constant.

"Kill!" Countless shouts shook the sky, piercing through the clouds and spreading to a very distant place.

The cavalrymen knew that their duty was to drive and harass, and the real lethality was to be handed over to the infantry in the column. The cavalrymen were like driving a flock of sheep, constantly driving the Japanese pirates into the line of fire of the column.

Life on the battlefield is just this cheap.

Three thousand against thirty thousand enemy troops—the Great Ming Capital Garrison elite troops not only suppressed the enemy's charge but even began to pursue and kill the enemy troops.

The war had entered its final stages, and the outcome was decided.

It wasn't until dusk that the pursuit stopped. The thirty thousand Japanese pirates who charged left behind a full ten thousand corpses. The Great Ming army, in teams of three, carried out "supplementary stabs" on the Japanese pirates on the battlefield to prevent omissions.

Supplementary stabs are a good habit since ancient times—teams of three to prevent the enemy's desperate counterattack.

On the seventh day, the battlefield was completely cleaned up. 1,400 Japanese pirates were captured, including the enemy commander, Sakai Tadatsugu.

Sakai Tadatsugu would go on a ship with 140 Japanese pirates and return to the Great Ming to serve as evidence of this military merit.

"Total annihilation"—the Great Ming has a strict definition: eliminate 90% of the enemy's effective strength; completely annihilate the enemy troops; or cause the enemy to lose all will to resist and lose the ability to reorganize combat power.

Satisfying one of these three definitions meets the standard of total annihilation.

Xiong Xiong Tingbi used three thousand people to complete his promise, totally annihilating the invading enemy and causing the enemy to lose the ability to reorganize, leaving them to flee in all directions. He did not pursue. His main purpose in coming to the Kanto Plain was to occupy this place and use his own methods to try to complete the "civilizing influence" of Japan.

Regarding the outcome of the war, Xiong Xiong Tingbi was not proud. With the crushing of cold weapons by all-firearm warfare, victory was a matter of course.

The Great Ming army suffered 77 casualties, including seven seriously wounded. Three died of their wounds. In this battle, 24 Great Ming soldiers sacrificed their lives. Their remains would be cremated, and their ashes and identity tags would be buried in the Xishan Martyrs' Shrine.

When Xiong Xiong Tingbi was writing the victory report, he hesitated. In the end, the first sentence in his victory report was: "Those who are good at winning do not fight; those who are good at fighting are subject to heavy punishment."

These two sentences come from the *Laozi* and the *Mencius*, respectively, meaning: those who are good at defeating the enemy do not easily engage in battle; those who are good at fighting, who only use force and take killing as beauty, should be punished more heavily.

This sentence was often told to all the elite troops of the Capital Garrison by Qi Qi Jiguang. It was the second core philosophy of the Great Ming Capital Garrison's army building after reporting to the Son of Heaven and saving the common people. In the use of troops, although one wins, one does not take it as beauty; although one conquers, one does not take it as strength, thus reaching the Kingly Way.

Like Qi Qi Jiguang, those who are good at fighting do not like fighting. The more a general is good at fighting and good at winning, the less he can be blinded by arrogance, and he must always be full of awe for the battlefield.

Xiong Xiong Tingbi was young and spirited. He even made a grand wish to change the current situation in Japan and make Japan truly stable, but he was never arrogant.

After writing this sentence, Xiong Xiong Tingbi wrote the experience of this war into a detailed battle report.

"Eunuch Li, why does His Majesty love me so much?" When Xiong Xiong Tingbi finished writing the battle report and handed it to Li Li Yougong, his face was a bit puzzled.

He felt that he had nothing special—just a cowherd—but he knew that since he was seen by His Majesty at the age of ten, he had received His Majesty's absolute favoritism. Even if he acted like a king in Japan, His Majesty seemed to be able to tolerate it.

"His Majesty thirsts for talent." Li Li Yougong gave a very standard answer, which was very reasonable, but it seemed not quite enough.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your boundless grace." Xiong Xiong Tingbi smiled, his smile as sunny and bright as His Majesty's—just like the favoritism Emperor Wu of Han had for Huo Huo Qubing, with no special reason.

"Sakai Tadatsugu wants to see you." Li Li Yougong also wrote his own battle report. He would set off with the navy to return to the Great Ming, just in time to catch the Tianjin Prefecture Fleet Review in October.

The October Tianjin Prefecture Fleet Review is held once a year, one of the two reviews in spring and autumn for the Great Ming, mainly to prove the loyalty of the navy. Loyalty needs to be seen by His Majesty with his own eyes.

Xiong Xiong Tingbi nodded and said, "Let's see him."

Sakai Tadatsugu was a defeated general, but this battle was fought in a confused manner. Xiong Xiong Tingbi had to ask him personally—ask this Sakai Tadatsugu why he was not afraid.

Sakai Tadatsugu had disheveled hair, wore plain clothes, and carried shackles and foot fetters. He looked at Xiong Xiong Tingbi's burly figure and the clean-shaven eunuch beside Xiong Xiong Tingbi. Sakai Tadatsugu's expression was extremely complex.

"I hate that I cannot be a Great Ming man." Sakai Tadatsugu looked for a long, long time before sighing and saying this inexplicable sentence.

Xiong Xiong Tingbi frowned and said, "It seems that you had unspeakable suffering for not retreating."

"I was loyal to the lord, but the lord abandoned me for the sake of his own face." Sakai Tadatsugu began to tell his story.

After Tokugawa Ieyasu killed his legal wife and eldest son, he began to gradually alienate Sakai Tadatsugu. From that time on, Sakai Tadatsugu fell into confusion—what exactly is loyalty?

After Xiong Xiong Tingbi completely figured out the reason, he shook his head and said, "Your king is not a wise and holy ruler."

A wise and holy ruler would not let a loyal subordinate fall into such a dilemma. Clearly, Tokugawa Ieyasu pushed his own blame onto his subordinate.

His Majesty would not be like this. When the order prohibiting the abandonment of land was first issued, it was His Majesty who thought wrong. His Majesty admitted it himself and ate his own words, without letting anyone bear the blame.

There is no perfect person in the world. His Majesty never thought about shaping a "heavenly being who is different from the common people." His Majesty also makes mistakes and has his own joys, angers, sorrows, and happiness. Sometimes he is a bit naive in politics. His Majesty only treats those setbacks and mistakes as the road he has traveled.

"Alas." Sakai Tadatsugu sighed and said no more. Three days later, he boarded the ship and was sent to the Great Ming as a trophy.

The October Fleet Review could not be held as scheduled because in October, the Bohaiwan began to enter the freezing period. This delayed the Fleet Review. The freezing period of the Bohaiwan was only one and a half months, but with the arrival of the climate change, this freezing period was still extending, already reaching two months, and would even continue to increase.

Li Li Yougong led the fleet to disembark at Jiaozhou Bay of the Mizhou Shipping Office. Jiaozhou Bay was still an ice-free port. On the seventeenth day of the tenth month, Li Li Yougong returned to the capital with the prisoners of war.

Zhu Zhu Yijun let Li Li Yougong rest for a day, and the next day he received Li Li Yougong in the Zhao Wenhua Hall.

Li Li Yougong entered the hall, raised Xiong Xiong Tingbi's victory report in his hand, knelt down, and said in a voice that reached the throne: "Your Majesty, please examine: I, your servant, received the imperial edict to supervise the army. The Edo Shogun, Xiong Xiong Tingbi, led three thousand heavenly troops to fight thirty thousand Japanese pirates at Odawara."

"Our Great Ming navy lined up in Sagami Bay. Nine-jin cannons destroyed their vanguard, Divine Fire Flying Crows burned their formation, and muskets broke their courage. After a day of fighting, we beheaded over ten thousand, captured the bandit chief Sakai Tadatsugu and over 1,400 others alive. Our army lost 24 men. This battle shook Japan, causing the Japanese pirates to lose their courage and the East Sea to tremble, all looking up to the prestige and virtue of the Holy Monarch, and the rapid advance of the heavenly troops."

Zhu Zhu Yijun said with a very serious expression: "The sacrificed elite troops are all martyrs of our Great Ming. According to the system, the Crown Prince shall support their coffins into the Martyrs' Shrine. The Ministry of War and the Five Chief Military Commissions shall know to do a good job in the honor and support of the martyrs' widows and children, and must not chill the hearts of the soldiers fighting for the country."

Zhu Zhu Changzhi, Qi Qi Jiguang, and Ceng Ceng Shengwu stepped out of the ranks, bowed their heads, and said: "We, your servants, receive the edict."

"I request the edict to include this battle in the *Great Ming Military Eastern Expedition Record* and the *Eastern Expedition Heroes Record*." Gao Zhu Qiyu stepped out of the ranks, bowed his head, and requested. His meaning was to continue to build the Great Ming's "Winning Studies"—that is, the "Winning Studies" where true victory is victory.

"It should be so." Zhu Zhu Yijun granted the Ministry of Rites' request.

"Your Majesty is wise." Zhu Zhu Changzhi, Qi Qi Jiguang, Ceng Ceng Shengwu, and Gao Zhu Qiyu bowed their heads and returned to their ranks.

Zhu Zhu Yijun looked at Shen Shen Shixing and asked with concern on his face: "Is the teacher's illness still not improving?"