Chapter 1313: A Battalion Comes Ashore

But since the man was already right in front of him, refusing to see him wouldn't do either. Although the generals of Dongjiang Town were the masters of Pi Island, their food, clothing, spending money, and arms all came from Xuzhou — how could they possibly put on a tough front? It wasn't that Pi Island hadn't tried tricks in private, like offering better terms to the Yu family and the Zheng family's big syndicates. Pi Island might be poor and harsh, but it still had enough supplies. In the end, it was all useless. Some people were clearly bought off and persuaded, yet the second time they never showed up again, making all of Dongjiang Town's earlier efforts come to nothing.

"Tell Fatty Luo to come over." Mao Wenlong said in a muffled voice. Everyone knew the steward's surname was Luo, his given name Chen. He had once worked at a certain bookshop in the capital and was well-versed in paperwork. A man like that certainly deserved the title of 'Mister,' and that was what everyone called him to his face, but in private they all called him Fatty Luo.

Kong Youde, who had just been praised, walked over to that Luo Chen, greeted him with a smile and a salute, then brought him over. Mao Wenlong, Chen Jisheng, and Li Jiucheng remained seated without moving; the other few men all rose to acknowledge him. Luo Chen clasped his fists in salute and offered a polite greeting.

"Pi Island is truly too small. No matter where this official goes, Mister Luo always manages to find me. How amusing." Mao Wenlong said with a smile, yet he did not offer Luo Chen a seat.

The smile on Luo Chen's face was utterly sincere, not changing in the slightest because of Mao Wenlong's barb. Standing there, he said genially, "Marshal Mao, what are you saying? This humble one searched for quite a while too. To be honest with you, Marshal, I've come in a hurry to give you advance notice of an urgent matter."

Hearing the words "urgent matter," the Pi Island generals exchanged glances, but none of them spoke. Luo Chen continued on his own, "Wasn't it discussed with you before, Marshal Mao? Pi Island is situated on the front line, with the Tatar horde to the west, and that Goryeo kingdom is unreliable as well. Our trading house has a lot of money and goods at the port, so we need to arrange guards to come and protect it. Marshal Mao still remembers this matter, right? You agreed to it back then."

Mao Wenlong's eyes narrowed. He nodded and said, "This official did agree at the time. Dongjiang Town's troops are already insufficient and are constantly being drawn away to Shandong, so we cannot spare the men to look after your esteemed establishment."

"The guards my master sent are on the ships and about to come ashore. These men handle matters with no proper procedure at all — I myself didn't even know beforehand, so I rushed over to inform you, Marshal Mao." Luo Chen said with a grin.

Before the words had fully faded, Mao Wenlong's face had already darkened. The generals around him were all furious. This kind of act-first-report-later business was truly infuriating. Back then it had been nothing more than a casual, polite agreement, and now they'd just climbed right up that pole. Moreover, Pi Island was easy to defend and hard to attack. If they truly wanted to prevent outsiders from landing, they could completely blockade it. But with no preparation whatsoever and the ships already pulling in, what could they do now?

At that moment, everyone looked toward the sea. Now they understood what the dozen-plus cannons on those ships were for. The more alert ones looked toward the port's unloading area, at the low wall of stacked grain sacks. Another ship had entered its berth and was beginning to lower its gangplank. It was just then that they could see many long spears being raised upright along the ship's gunwale.

Chen Jisheng suddenly shot up from his seat, glaring viciously at Luo Chen. Yet Luo Chen's plump face was full of pure innocence. The two sides stared at each other for a moment, then Chen Jisheng whispered a few words to Mao Wenlong. After that, three of the seated men stood up and ran hurriedly into the island's interior. A smile appeared on Mao Wenlong's face. He stood with his hands behind his back and said, "Back and forth, everyone keeps talking about Xuzhou's crack troops and mighty soldiers. Today, this official will see them for himself."

The ship that had docked had already dropped anchor and lowered its gangplank. Once the hull was stable, the first man began walking down. He held a long spear in his hand, carried a square bamboo-frame pack on his back, wore armor on his torso and a helmet on his head, and strode down in a few steps.

A ship in the water is affected by the waves and cannot remain completely steady; it constantly pitches and sways. The first man off the ship was clearly not very accustomed to this. Just as he was about to step onto the dock, he stumbled, lost his balance, and fell straight to the ground, even rolling over once. He looked quite disheveled.

There were already quite a few people, idle and busy alike, on the dock, all watching the big ship dock with curiosity. Seeing something amiss, they all felt a vague sense of tension. The soldiers and refugees on Pi Island were different from those elsewhere in the Great Ming — everyone here had walked through life and death, so they naturally possessed a degree of alertness. Seeing this scene, many looked to the Corps Commander and Battalion Commander in charge, only to find that those commanders were also looking at others. But before long, things settled down. No orders were given, so the crowd naturally relaxed as well and watched on with curiosity.

That Zhao Family Army soldier carrying the long spear was tall and sturdy, wore armor, and carried himself with a disciplined, imposing air. He looked utterly formidable. Everyone's attention was focused on him; even those not nearby were walking this way, looking this way. No one expected that the moment this man stepped off the ship, he would take a tumble. It was truly baffling. The dock fell silent at first, then someone burst out laughing. The laughter spread rapidly, and soon the entire port was roaring with laughter.

The Zhao Family Army soldier who had fallen also looked sheepish. After getting up, he walked off to one side. The observant could notice that the low wall of previously unloaded grain sacks seemed to mark the spot where he was to stand. Some also noticed that when that Zhao Family Army soldier fell and his armor clattered against the ground, the sound it made seemed to be that of solid iron.

"Truly mighty soldiers and fierce warriors. Impressive, truly impressive!" Over on that side, Mao Wenlong also let out a laugh and drawled a couple of remarks. The smile on Luo Chen's face remained unchanged; he even chimed in with, "Pardon the embarrassing display, pardon it."

One by one, the soldiers of the Zhao Family Army walked down from the ship, forming up with the first soldier who had disembarked as the endpoint, standing in a square formation. One ship could hold a full company. It was only because they had set out from the Dengzhou naval port to Pi Island — a short journey with little need for rations or fresh water — otherwise, a large ship, aside from its crew, could only carry about fifty soldiers. It wasn't that there were no larger ships, but they rarely came into the waters off Liaodong.

Once one company had formed up, a second company began disembarking. The laughter and chatter on the dock gradually died down. Every Zhao Family Army company formation was perfectly square and orderly. As they marched and took their positions, they bumped into one another, confirming that they were all wearing iron armor. Even the common soldiers wore iron helmets and plate armor. The spearheads were a full span long, and the iron sleeve connecting the head to the shaft was also a span long. The uniforms beneath the armor showed no patches, and the shoes they wore were uniform, sturdy, and thick. Besides the long spear, each man also carried a blade at his waist.

The soldiers and civilians of Pi Island's Dongjiang Town had all seen the world. What they hadn't seen before, they'd seen plenty of on their flight into exile. They could naturally discern the quality of these four hundred soldiers before them. After looking at the arms and armor, they looked at the soldiers themselves. Every man had a healthy complexion and a robust build — clearly men who could eat their fill, and eat decently at that. How many soldiers like these could the vast Dongjiang Town boast? They themselves hadn't been eating their fill for very long.

Those four hundred soldiers armed with long spears took up positions at the four corners and stood firm. Among the onlookers, almost no one was talking or laughing loudly anymore. Everyone could feel that oppressive, fierce, and murderous aura.

"The scoundrels! Even if we tried to drive them away now, we couldn't budge them!" A military officer beside Mao Wenlong said bitterly, not caring in the slightest that Luo Chen beside him could hear. Mao Wenlong, his face grim, stood up. The generals of Dongjiang Town stood up with him.

Mao Wenlong glanced at the broadly smiling Luo Chen and said in a muffled voice, "Let's go up close and take a look. Let's go see these mighty soldiers from Xuzhou!"

Anyone with some experience in marching and deploying troops could read the situation on the dock. Now, a ring of grain sacks had been arranged into a fortification, and those four hundred Xuzhou soldiers, fully armed, were holding it. Even if Dongjiang Town prepared for a bloody fight right now and threw in all the troops they could muster, they wouldn't be able to take the port for a while — and even if they did, they'd suffer massive casualties.

On the way over, Dongjiang Town's Regional Commander Chen Jisheng had already sent word back: the two thousand soldiers left on standby were ready to move out at any moment, and they were still grabbing troops everywhere. With a single order from Mao Wenlong, they could charge over and attack immediately. After hearing this report, Mao Wenlong pondered for a moment. He looked at the cannons on those ships, then looked again at those four hundred impeccably disciplined elite soldiers, and merely lowered his voice and ordered back, "Wait for now."

No one expected that the men coming down didn't stop there. Once the men from the four large ships had disembarked and cleared space for the ships behind, soldiers carrying matchlocks began walking down. Mao Wenlong was now close enough to see many details, and his expression grew even grimmer. Those matchlocks all had their fuses lit, each muzzle pointed upward. It was clear they were prepared to open fire at any moment.

Seeing these soldiers with matchlocks come down, no matter what the Dongjiang Town generals thought of the matchlock's power, they had already lost any confidence in driving the other side into the sea. Both sides now possessed weapons that could strike at range — if a fight broke out, the casualties would be enormous. It wasn't necessarily impossible if they were willing to throw lives away, but Dongjiang Town's enemy was the Tatars, not these Xuzhou soldiers of unknown origin.

When they saw the crowd straining and hauling to unload two cannons from the ship, Mao Wenlong could no longer maintain his composure. His expression changed completely. Glaring at Luo Chen beside him, he said, "What is this? Does Xuzhou intend to seize Pi Island? I've heard you even dared to attack the capital — I suppose this Pi Island isn't even worth a glance to you?"

Angry as Mao Wenlong was, his words were very measured. As a military officer of the Great Ming, he knew full well that the other side had already torn their face off with the imperial court, yet he made no mention of any great cause, only sticking to the matter at hand. The expressions of the men around him were somewhat complicated as well. When they'd heard the news of Xuzhou attacking the capital, they had muttered among themselves in private, thinking the other side would take the initiative to recruit this isolated army beyond the seas.

On their lips, everyone said, "We endured the hardest times — how could we become traitors to the Great Ming now?" Yet in their hearts, they all had their calculations. Following the Great Ming meant drinking the wind and eating snow. If they could follow this Xuzhou, then they'd be eating well and living large. But Xuzhou had never shown any intention of recruiting them, and they wouldn't take the initiative to defect either. After all, the vast majority of the tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians on Pi Island had no idea that Xuzhou had already fallen out with the Great Ming. In their hearts, the interior of the Great Ming was still a land of peace and bliss. If they rashly made a move on their own, they'd likely be torn apart by their own subordinates in a bloody mutiny.

In the current situation, with these several hundred elite troops plus two cannons on the other side, who knew if there were more still to come from those large ships that hadn't unloaded? If there were, and they truly made a move against Pi Island's Dongjiang Town, what choice should everyone make? Fight or surrender? Most likely, Mao Wenlong himself had his own calculations, which was why, up to now, it was all just talk.

Thanks to old friends "Duan Yichen," "Huang Qi__Wang Meng," "Qi Sanwen," "User Xijin," "Xi Shua Shua," "Yuan Heng Li Zhen," "Feng Zhong Long Wang," "Sui Xin Zi Wo 0," and "Xiao Qi Wen Ming Qi Ji" for the tips. Thank you all for your subscriptions and monthly tickets — the more, the better. Thank you, everyone.