Chapter 1325: The Enemy Comes from the East

Outside the fortress, the men keeping watch from Pi Island had no shifts to speak of. By this hour, every man's eyelids were fighting to stay open, dead tired, and the last stretch before dawn was the hardest to endure. But just then, the aroma of cooking food drifted over, and the clamor of laughter and cheerful voices from inside grew louder. They were jolted awake at once, cursing openly without the slightest restraint even as their mouths watered. These wastrels raised in blessed lands—just wait till the Tatars set foot on the island, then you'll get what's coming to you.

The sky gradually brightened. The Zhao Family Army soldiers, who had just been scolded roundly by Zhao Song, were now being watched closely by their company commanders and squad leaders. No one dared slack off; everyone checked their gear and weapons. Yet the excitement and eagerness in their hearts could not be suppressed. They were about to fight the Tatars. Everyone said the Tatars were ferocious beyond compare—they wondered how they measured up against their own Xuzhou men. Our battalion is the first unit of the Zhao Family Army to engage the Tatars. We must win with spirit and honor.

"Look—the mountaintop!" a soldier on sentry duty suddenly bellowed. Every head looked up. They could see the lookout perched in the treetops frantically waving his flag.

"Enemy attack! The enemy is to the north! The enemy is coming from the east! They're coming from the south!" Everyone grasped the meaning of the signal: enemies to the north, but also enemies to the east, and to the south as well. East and south were the directions of the harbor here. Had the Tatars gone mad? They dared to make such a wide detour relying only on rafts? How many men did they have to dare split their forces like this? Was this an assault on Pi Island or a suicide charge?

"The fleet! The fleet!" From outside the fortress came shrieks already distorted by terror—some from Pi Island commoners on the docks, some from sailors on the seagoing vessels. The Zhao Family Army soldiers atop the fortress could see clearly: in the dissipating pale morning mist, many ships were sailing in under full canvas. Dozens of them—likely over a hundred!

Though the ships flew no banners and all they could see was that the decks were packed with men, everyone understood at once. These were Jianzhou Jurchen ships. These were Tatar ships. The raft engagement at the nearest point on the northern shore had never been the main force. The true main force had been biding its time, waiting to strike—and now it was launching!

"The Tatars have come with more than five thousand—likely over ten thousand troops. The ships from Goryeo were either seized or extorted, and they were indeed given to them. They've been preparing right off the coast of Pi Island all along. They never intended to fight a naval battle with Pi Island. They still mean to land and fight it out hand-to-hand!" Luo Chen, his clothes disheveled, rushed out. Staring at the fleet two li away, his voice trembled as he spoke.

"They're on Sinmi Island! They're on Sinmi Island!" a clerk from Cloud Mountain Trading cried out. Sinmi Island lay twenty li east of Pi Island. Although Sinmi Island was also an island, it was connected to the mainland; after the tide ebbed, one could walk onto the island along the tidal flats. There, the Jianzhou Jurchens could board the island at their leisure, then round up ships and make preparations. No wonder they had screened the battlefield so thoroughly—it had all been to prepare for this.

This required no divine foresight. When the enemy appeared before their eyes, everything could be deduced. Around Pi Island, the only place suitable for a fleet to advance and launch an attack was Sinmi Island.

"The Tatars planned this well. They actually dared sail at night!" someone muttered. But no one thought much of it. Sinmi Island was less than twenty li from Pi Island, and they could use the mainland coastline and the stars as markers—night sailing posed no real danger.

Those who could stand around discussing this were only the clerks and scribes of Cloud Mountain Trading. Everyone in the soldier battalion was already in motion. The oilcloth covering the two light cannons had been pulled off; they could open fire at any moment. Soldiers ran toward the nearby dock, where the two seagoing ships could be seen hoisting sail and weighing anchor. This was on Zhao Song's orders. Those two large ships, if left in the harbor, could easily be captured or destroyed by the enemy. Better to put to sea and stay mobile—it would serve as a fallback.

The Eastern River Garrison men who had been watching the Cloud Mountain Trading fortress were already sprinting madly toward the northern shore. The day before, patrols and sentries had been everywhere. But after those several major engagements and the sight of the enemy camp on the opposite shore ablaze with activity all night, most of the Eastern River Garrison's strength had been concentrated on the northern shore. This side was now empty, and there was no time left to react. The messengers were not only Eastern River Garrison soldiers—Zhao Song had also sent his own men. Word had to reach that side, no matter what.

Their own men had not run far when they saw others likewise sprinting toward them from that direction.

"Battalion Commander! The Tatars on the northern shore have all put to sea! Too many rafts—it's a general assault!" Zhao Song knew to send word to Mao Wenlong, but Mao Wenlong had not thought of this side. It was the soldier battalion's own men who came running back with the report. At the first light of dawn, the Jianzhou camp on the northern shore had launched every raft, surging toward them in a vast, overwhelming tide—a terrifying display of force.

Under such an all-out assault, even without this fleet from the south, the northern shore might not have held. They had to remember that in those previous clashes, the Jianzhou Jurchens had never committed their full strength. If they truly fought with no regard for life or death, once two thousand Jianzhou Jurchen soldiers set foot on shore, Pi Island's Eastern River Garrison likely could not withstand it. And the true strategic calculus was even worse than that.

"The moment the Tatars on this side land, the Eastern River Garrison troops on the northern shore will inevitably lose heart and collapse. When that happens, tens of thousands of men will rout all over this island. Forget organizing a counterattack—they'll be killing each other, and the chaos might even spill over onto us. When that happens, it will be a catastrophe!" Zhao Song spoke rapidly, not even noticing that his voice had gone hoarse.

"Battalion Commander, can we stop the fleet outside the island?" a company commander called out loudly.

"We can't stop them. The Eastern River Garrison's ships combined with ours might be able to, but those rafts are about to arrive as well. It's the same old situation." Zhao Song's mind was a tangled mess; he answered on instinct.

Before coming here, Master Jin had instructed them to distinguish clearly between us and them. They were fellow Han, true, but the Eastern River Garrison was the Great Ming's official army, while their own force was the Xuzhou Zhao Family Army—the two were tantamount to enemy states. But this superbly armed and equipped unit, these all-elite soldiers and officers, this fortress built at enormous cost, and the seagoing ships stationed here permanently—Master Jin had invested heavily here and surely did not want it all squandered. Yet if the Tatars truly landed on the island, with several thousand Tatars plus routed soldiers swarming all over the hills, could his own five hundred men hold out?

Zhao Song had witnessed the suppression of bandits beneath the walls of Xuzhou. The household troops who had followed Master Jin back then—the lowest-ranking of them was now at least a company commander, every one a first-class elite. Could his own battalion do the same? He had considered every possible scenario for coming here and had thought a great battle like this, with Tatar slaves landing on the island, was the least likely. He had never imagined the least likely possibility would come true. What to do? Zhao Song had never before had to make such a decision. In his anguish, he saw the company commanders and squad leaders all staring at him, waiting for his order.

What would Master Jin do at a moment like this? Zhao Song knew Zhao Jin a little better than most—not just the widely known deeds and merits, but also the descriptions from family. If Zhao Jin were in such a situation, there would be only one choice!

"All companies! Form ranks and prepare for battle!"

"Old Luo, send someone to find whoever's in charge in the Eastern River Garrison. Tell them we'll hold the line here first. Tell them not to lose focus over there. If possible, send some reserve able-bodied young men over."

Zhao Song had made his decision. At a time like this, there was nothing more to say. Go out and fight them!

The Eastern River Garrison had originally stationed a battalion on the eastern side of Pi Island as well—the art of war demanded guarding against every possible risk. But once the Jianzhou Jurchens had assumed a posture of decisive battle on the northern shore, the Eastern River Garrison, seeking absolute security, had transferred the bulk of its main force to the northern side. Even the able-bodied young men on Pi Island capable of fighting had been prioritized for the north.

For the overall defense of Pi Island, the south was the direction that required the least consideration, and the east was equally secure—because the vast sea itself served as a natural moat and fortification, and the enemy was the Jianzhou Jurchens, notoriously inept at naval warfare. No one had imagined that the Jianzhou Jurchens would begin their landing from the most unlikely direction—the southeast.

When the Jianzhou Jurchen army was first detected, the Eastern River Garrison's defense planning had accounted for every possibility. But the Jianzhou Jurchen troops had successfully drawn the Eastern River Garrison's main force to the northern shore, successfully convinced the Eastern River Garrison troops that all attacks would come from that direction, and then prepared to meet them with full force, mobilizing every resource at hand. Just when the Eastern River Garrison commanders on Pi Island believed this to be the case, the true offensive began—a two-pronged pincer attack, while the Eastern River Garrison was only prepared to meet an assault from one direction!

Zheng Xiao'er was originally a military householder from a military farm colony in Liaoyang. Since his great-grandfather's generation, his family had been tenant farmers paying rent to the garrison commander, and life had been bitterly hard. So when the Tatar army swept through, his family never thought of fleeing. Being beasts of burden was the same either way—what difference did it make whether you slaved for a Great Ming officer or for the Tatars? But after this farmstead was taken, catastrophe struck Zheng Xiao'er's family. Zheng Xiao'er, his father, and his elder brother had been out working the fields. When they returned after a long day's labor, they found his mother, sister-in-law, and elder sister all dead in the house, their bodies naked. They had been brutalized to death. Upon asking around, they learned it was the work of the Tatar lord who oversaw the farmstead.

Such atrocities faced no punishment whatsoever. The Zheng family had nowhere to go to file a grievance. Those who stayed behind all swallowed their rage in silence. But how could the Zheng men endure such a thing? Zheng Xiao'er's elder brother rushed out to fight to the death. Right in front of the Tatar overseer's door, he was cut down with a single blade. Immediately after, the Tatar overseer brought men to the door to arrest the "remnant rebels." Zheng Xiao'er's father swung a hoe and fought them to the death, while Zheng Xiao'er hid in a neighbor's cellar in the back alley.

When he emerged from that cellar, Zheng Xiao'er knew he was the only one left in his family. His sole path out was to flee. Once the Jianzhou Jurchens' brutality became apparent, many people across the occupied territories of the Liao Garrison were fleeing. Zheng Xiao'er joined these refugees. After enduring countless hardships and dangers, he encountered a small squad from Pi Island that was rounding up population, and thus he arrived at this Great Ming garrison, the Eastern River Garrison.

By the time he got here, Zheng Xiao'er was utterly penniless. A man like that had no way of boarding a ship to Shandong. Those Liao refugees who were sent aboard ships to cross south were all people who had given benefits to the Eastern River Garrison—some were even willing to have their womenfolk sleep with the men in charge, all for the chance to reach that peaceful world of the Great Ming inside the pass. As for someone like Zheng Xiao'er, he could only enter the Eastern River Garrison first, work and save up, and see if an opportunity to board a ship south ever came his way.

By now, a whole set of rules governed how things operated in the Eastern River Garrison. Most of the population taken in on Pi Island wanted to board ships for the interior. Some had brought gold and silver when they fled; some had brought their families. You had to pay all kinds of prices before you could get on a ship.

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